Pioneering Audit Innovations in an Evolving Global Landscape

The Israel State Comptroller and President of EUROSAI, Mr. Matanyahu Englman, addressed (January 28-29, 2025) the Meeting of OECD Auditors-General and Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions, which took place in Paris, on the topic of Public Financial Management.

Participants included delegates from OECD countries. This event, organized by the OECD, provided a forum for the Heads of Supreme Audit Institutions from across OECD members and accession countries to exchange ideas and experiences in confidence.

In his capacity as President of EUROSAI, Mr. Englman expressed his deep appreciation to the Secretary-General of the OECD, Mr. Mathias Cormann, for the important and enriching meeting and emphasized the importance of co-operation with the OECD, to the benefit of all SAIs.

The meeting featured a conversation between Ms. Elsa Pilichowski, OECD Director of Public Governance, and Mr. Gene Dodaro, Comptroller General of the United States, about the role of independent, agile, and innovative SAIs, from fiscal stability to artificial intelligence. It was followed by a roundtable discussion focused on performance auditing for better spending and the challenge of implementing recommendations. Participants in the discussion represented the SAIs of Finland (session chair), Netherlands, Spain, and the European Court of Auditors.

Additional presentations dealt with various aspects of the meeting theme:

• A discussion on spending reviews and audit was chaired by SAI Belgium, with participants from SAI Portugal and SAI United Kingdom.
• A discussion on achieving impact and sustainability audits was chaired by SAI Portugal, with participation from the SAIs of Brazil, Poland, Slovakia, and Malta.
• A discussion on empowering public understanding was chaired by SAI Norway, with participation from the SAIs of Germany, Switzerland, Japan, Slovakia, and Israel.
• A public debate on financial sustainability and a look to the future was presented by Mr. Einar Gørrissen, Director-General of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI).

In his opening remarks, Mr. Englman discussed the importance of performance auditing. The President urged the attendees to adopt a "Voice for the Voiceless" approach and, as part of SAI independence, to focus on advancing populations that deserve special attention: "For example, in Israel we have undertaken audits in areas such as at-risk children and online safety. Furthermore, we are currently leading an international collaborative audit on the issue of aging."

Mr. Englman also stressed the importance of performing audits in sustainability-related fields, such as climate change, and especially in the context of disaster preparedness: "Just recently, Los Angeles experienced damages amounting to tens of billions of dollars, with hundreds of thousands of people displaced from their homes. As state auditors, it is our responsibility to assess risks before they materialize and to examine the preparedness of our governments for such risks. We are committed to this task, both for the benefit of our generation and for future generations."

During the meeting, Mr. Englman underlined the importance of diversification of state audit types. He cited examples of audits performed by SAI Israel on a variety of audit types such as placement of at-risk children (a social audit), the drone threat (a defence audit), road safety (a systemic audit), Cybersecurity and information security for medical devices (a cyber audit), and preparedness for inflation (a cost of living audit).

He further emphasized the importance of making audit reports accessible to the public in attractive, readily accessible, and concise formats, including videos presented by famous personalities related to the audit topic.

Mr. Englman noted that auditors must include in their skill development the mapping of global trends, assessment of national risks, and familiarization with government strategy.

According to him, a keynote theme underpinning many Israel SAI audits is implementing a "Voice for the Voiceless" value system. These state audits, with a social orientation, examined protection of minors, preventing sexual harassment of women, and promoting minority groups and the disabled. 

Mr. Englman also illustrated how audit reports have been made user-friendly with extensive use of infographics, accessibility on multiple social media platforms, short videos, podcasts, and a book of abstracts. Other EUROSAI members have instituted podcasts and blogs about audit topics and are enabling the uploading of reports to mobile devices.

State Comptroller of Israel and President of EUROSAI, who initiated and headed the state audit meeting at the OECD, summed up the meeting in the following words:

"In my lectures, I have demonstrated that we must on the one hand look at the possible risks, and on the other hand consider the use of contemporary audit tools in order to advance our audit for the benefit of society.

"The knowledge we have shared here will undoubtedly enhance our work and further strengthen public financial management across our institutions. 

"Representatives from 35 countries took part in the meeting. We discussed a number of issues. The message that emerges is: 'Be innovative, be creative, be relevant. As state auditors we have lateral and external vision of all the governmental entities and public bodies subject to our oversight. Our access to data is an asset that enables us to conduct performance reviews of the highest standard. But at the same time, we must safeguard our role as independent and reliable state audit, while strictly upholding professional ethics.

"The discussions held in the course of the meeting unveiled the high importance of the contribution of audit to long term sustainability preparedness for high risk events/global crises, for the benefit of the populations of our countries. 

"We at EUROSAI are already looking forward to next year’s meeting and to continuing our shared journey of learning and collaboration."