MOBILISING MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION AUDITING CAPACITIES AND RESOURCES FOR SDG IMPLEMENTATION PAPER BY FUIMAONO MATA AFĀ PAPALII C.G. AFELE TAIMALELAGI CONTROLLER & AUDITOR-GENERAL INDEPENDENT STATE OF SAMOA SAI LEADERSHIP AND STAKEHOLDER MEETING AUDITING PREPAREDNESS FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS (SDG) ORGANISES BY INTOSAI DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVE AND UN DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL AFFAIRS 20-21 JULY 2017 CONFERENCE ROOM 11 UNITED NATIONS HEADQUARTERS, NEW YORK 1 P a g e
Table of Contents I. INTRODUCTION... 2 II. WHAT COULD OR SHOULD BE THE SCOPE OF AUDITS RELATED TO RESOURCES AND CAPACITIES FOR SDG IMPLEMENTATION?... 3 I. INTRODUCTION SLIDE 1 First I join our past Speakers and Moderators of today and yesterday in thanking UNDESA and IDI for organising and calling this important meeting that we have all been fortunate to attend. As you can read from the Agenda before us I am tasked to provide an insight using Samoa and PASAI Experience on the topic mobilising means of implementation and auditing capacities and resources for SDG implementation. I am going to speak mainly about the experience of Samoa the host of the last SIDS (Small Island Developing States) meeting in 2014 where the Samoa Pathway was declared as the Outcome. I am 2 P a g e
however obligated to also reflect on what PASAI, INTOSAI and IDI are doing together as Partners in the progression and audit of the implementation of the SDGs. Please allow me to use the questions from the Organisers to guide and lead this session as shown on the Slide. II. SLIDE 2 WHAT COULD OR SHOULD BE THE SCOPE OF AUDITS RELATED TO RESOURCES AND CAPACITIES FOR SDG IMPLEMENTATION? The first question guiding this session is about the scope of audits related to resources and capacities for SDG implementation. Just this month I sent a Circular Memorandum to all Public Sector Entities that we audit that the audits for the new financial year July2017-June2018 will use and follow a new approach. I called the new approach a comprehensive audit comprising of financial, performance, compliance, environmental, information technology and special audits. I emphasized in my memorandum that the non-financial aspect of the comprehensive audit will include the audit of SDG implementation for the very first time. The Samoa Audit Office under its 10 year Strategic Plan from July 2014 to June 2024 established four new Units to focus on operational audits. The focus of the traditional Financial Audit Units has always been on financial attest audits of controls, transactions and balances. The focus of the new operational audit Units will be on the economy, efficiency, effectiveness, ethics, equity and the environmental conscience of output delivery and governance and public administration, finance and expenditure. Amongst the Units established to focus on operational audits are the Performance, Compliance and Environmental Audit Unit and the Legal Unit. This wise and learned audience are well aware that audits related to resources and capacities for SDG implementation will naturally be performance, compliance and environmental audits. These audits should follow the simplified logic model of inputs, outputs and outcomes discussed yesterday morning in SAI USA s presentation as well as other interventions. It could also very well use the complexity model also discussed by SAI USA yesterday morning as SAIs and Governments move closer with sustained confidence in its implementation and review towards the 2030 SDG targets. 3 P a g e
To us in SAI Samoa we should do the basics right and the rest should follow. After all, we have 13 years left to get the SDG audits right and get the SDG audits completed, repeated and sustained. We do have to remind ourselves that the 2030 targets are not an end in itself but they form the means of reaching an ongoing and indefinite end. It is not just reaching the 2030 targets that we as Public Auditors should be interested in. It is reaching, maintaining and sustaining the SDGs as an indefinite and never ending goal for current and future generations of the World. It is a blessing that the Government of Samoa has made substantial progress and advances in terms of mapping and matching its long term Strategy or Strategic Plans, Sector Plans, Annual Plans and Annual Budgets with the SDGs. Since 1996 Samoa changed its budget system from an input based budget system to an output and outcome based one using quantity, quality and timeliness as the indicators of economy, efficiency, effectiveness, ethics, equity and environmental conscience of output delivery, governance, public administration, finance and expenditure. The Government of Samoa is still appropriating funds and finances in its budget to individual Ministries despite its Strategic and Sector Plans being formulated along Sectoral lines and overarching strategic focus. There is an intention to change to an outcome based appropriation model perhaps under Sectors in the medium to long term. Parliamentary Committees have already been divided and categorised using the Sectors for providing and doing oversight and accountability work on the annual reports from Public Sector Entities It is my intention as the Auditor General of Samoa to start first in financial year 2018 with the audit of performance measures of quantity, quality and timeliness as well as the audit of compliance with policies and legislations for each Entity making up the various sectors of the Samoan economy. Once we have reasonable assurance and confidence at the individual entity level about the means of implementation and capacities and resources for SDG implementation then we can move onto conducting our performance audits at the Sector Level as well as the Overarching Strategic Level as we move closer to the 2030 targets. All members of our Performance, Compliance, Environmental and Legal Unit are Accountants being trained as Performance Auditors except for our lone Lawyer assisting with the audit of compliance with policies and legislations. SAI Samoa has been fortunate that members of the new operational audit Units will be IDI and INTOSAI trained and certified along with other PASAI Auditors as demonstrated yesterday in the presentation from SAI India on current regional projects with IDI on the audit of SDGs. We are all also been fortunate as members of the INTOSAI Family to have resources, facilities and partnerships such as ISSAIs, UN, INTOSAI, IDI, Commonwealth Association of SAIs and Regional Associations of SAIs which should guide and inform our audit approaches and audit scope for audits related to resources and capacities for SDG implementation. III. HOW CAN CAPACITIES AND RESOURCES FOR IMPLEMENTING SDGS BE IDENTIFIED 4 P a g e
For Samoa the Strategic, Sector and Annual Plans form the basis or platform for annual budgets and donor and loan funded special projects. Internationally, Samoa also produced in 2014 in the SIDS meeting the international Samoa Pathway pronouncement which small island states can use as a premise or platform for capacity building and funding modalities. The annual budgets of the Government of Samoa identify which expenditures and finances will be for the current and ongoing commitments of Government funded mostly from ordinary and domestic revenues and which expenditures and finances will be for medium to long term special development projects funded mostly by way of grants and loans from both local and overseas donors and lenders. For the past years the top five allocation of the annual budget for the current and ongoing commitments of Government from highest to lowest have always been: 1. Education 2. Health 3. Transport, Works and Infrastructure 4. Agriculture & Fisheries 5. Natural resources and environment I think this wise and experienced audience will agree with me that ever since the creation or founding of Governments these have been the common priorities. When the SDG tag or label came along, the traditional governance and public administration outcomes put up and put forward the protection of the environment and sustainable development as the ultimate outcome of all Nations. Of course sustainable development as we all know is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising or sacrificing the needs of future generations. It also involves the integration of social, economic and environmental objectives or outcomes in governance, public administration, public finance and public expenditure. It was also once known as the triple bottom line of governance, public administration, public finance and public expenditure. The INTOSAI family has in ISSAI 5130 the standards and guidelines for auditing sustainable development. IV. COMPARED TO WHAT SAIS HAVE BEEN DOING, DOES AUDITING OF CAPACITIES AND RESOURCES FOR MOBILISING THE MEANS OF IMPLEMENTATION FOR THE SDGS IMPLY NEW APPROACHES, METHODOLOGIES AND CAPACITIES. ARE THERE ANY SPECIFIC RISKS. ARE THERE ANY SPECIFIC AREAS RELATED TO THE MOBILISATION OF RESOURCES AND CAPACITIES THAT WOULD BE DIFFICULT FOR SAIS TO AUDIT OR WOULD CHALLENGE THE SCOPE OF SAIS MANDATES As I said before I think this wise and experienced audience are well aware that audits related to resources and capacities for SDG implementation are naturally performance, compliance and 5 P a g e
environmental audits. Depending on where a SAI is, with performance, compliance and environmental auditing, it could mean the approaches, methodologies and capacities can either be the same or totally different and new especially if SAIs have just moved focus from a financial one to an operational one. I have already disclosed where SAI Samoa is with performance, compliance and environmental audits and where it is going in terms of starting small and humble and advancing further as we march onto the 2030 SDG targets. The risks will be accepting mediocrity and settling with the simple performance measures and indicators to audit because of the lack of technical capacity to delve further into technically complex areas. This is where I believe we can tap onto our family partnerships or networks of technical expertise and financial assistance available in UN, INTOSAI, IDI, Commonwealth Association of SAIs and Regional Associations of SAIs such as Eurosai, Afrosai, Asosai, Arabosai, Carosai, Pasai and Olacef. V. WHAT CAN BE THE VALUE ADDED OF SAIS INVOLVEMENT IN THIS? WHAT ROLE CAN SAIS PLAY TO ENHANCE PUBLIC SECTOR PERFORMANCE IN SDG IMPLEMENTATION THROUGH THEIR AUDITS OF RESOURCES AND CAPACITIES Whether we are auditing financial accountability or performance accountability of the Executive Government our divine call and appointment as I prefer to call it, is to provide independent and evidence based assurance about governance, public administration, financial and performance accountability of the Executive, public finance and public expenditure. Recently under ISSAI 12 the INTOSAI family is being continuously reminded about the value and benefits of supreme audit institutions in making a difference to the lives of citizens. Our work has a positive impact on trust in society because it focuses the minds of the custodians of public resources on how well they use those resources. This wise and experienced audience are well aware that when SAIs were created they were only tasked to look at how much Governments collect and spend. Today under the SDG 2030 Agenda the SAIs are also now being tasked to ask how well Governments spend, what Governments are spending on and whether Governments are doing things right and doing the right things. So what value are we adding and what role are we playing as SAIs. We are the state and public auditors and we give independent assurance on governance, public administration, public finance and public expenditure to the Public and State through Parliament and Executive Governments. THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION 6 P a g e