security funds, i.e., the financial reports covered by PI-6.3. The latter may not always be audited by the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI), as the use of other audit institutions may be foreseen. Where SAI capacity is limited, the audit program may be planned by the SAI in line with legal audit obligations on a multi-year basis in order to ensure that high priority or risk-prone entities and functions are covered regularly, whereas other entities and functions may be covered less frequently. Audit work should cover total revenue, expenditure, assets, and liabilities, regardless of whether these are reflected in financial reports (see PI-2913).
30.1:2. Adherence to auditing standards, such as the International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAI) and the IFAC/IAASB International Standards on Auditing (ISA)14, should ensure a focus on significant and systemic PFM issues in reports, as well as conducting financial and compliance audit activities, such as providing an opinion on the financial statements, the regularity and propriety of transactions, and the functioning of internal control and procurement systems. The SAI should implement a quality assurance system to assess whether its audits adhere to the adopted audit standards. These reviews are generally internal to the SAI, though independent of those carrying out the audits, but external bodies may also play a role in the process, for example, through peer reviews or via
a professional regulatory body. Independent quality assurance review reports should be the main source for assessing whether audit standards are generally adhered to.
30.1:3. This dimension is applicable in the case of audits of financial reports by jurisdictional court model SAIs (court systems). In the current state of development of budgetary and accounting environments in the countries evaluated, PEFA reports often refer to the ‘compte général des administrations des finances’ (general account of the financial administrations) as financial report and the ‘rapport d’exécution sur la loi de finance’ (budget execution report) and/or the General declaration of conformity accompanying the execution law as the audit report. This dimension assesses that the audit of financial reports made by the SAI:
- guarantees some coverage, both in terms of content (at least for C and B scores, revenue and expenditure) and materiality (percentage of CG revenue and expenditure),
- applies auditing standards which can be ISSAI or nationally defined for the scores C and B, ISSAIs or consistent with ISSAIs for A,
- highlights the significant problems.
Dimension 30.1. Timing, coverage and data requirements
| Time period | Coverage | Data requirements/calculation | Data sources |
|---|---|---|---|
| Last three completed fiscal years | CG. |
|
|
13 The 2016 framework incorrectly refers to PI-28. 14 The ISSAIs on financial audit are based on the corresponding ISAs, which guide the conduct of the audit of financial statements, including related compliance audit requirements such as consideration of laws and regulations in an audit of financial statements.
PEFA Handbook Volume 1: The PEFA Assessment Process – Planning, Managing and Using PEFA
