A strong audit institution is key to an accountable budget. Supreme audit institutions (SAIs) have one of the toughest jobs in government: ensuring that powerful politicians, officials and institutions are held accountable. It’s also one of the most important jobs, as it improves the lives of people by ensuring governments deliver on their promises.

IBP engages with current and former auditors general and leaders of watchdog groups to prompt action on public audit findings that are being ignored.

We document and share best practices on how national audit offices can collaborate with civil society to ensure audit findings have follow-through so that public money reaches those who need it most.

We developed the Audit Accountability Initiative to bring SAIs and civil society organizations together to strengthen government responsiveness to audit recommendations through more effective communication and engagement. In Argentina, Ghana, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Tanzania, SAIs and civil society have coordinated efforts to ensure governments act upon the findings and recommendations contained in audit reports.

We began this initiative after data from our Open Budget Survey revealed a paralysis in oversight systems that often prevents SAIs from achieving their overarching goals of protecting the public interest by improving the management of public funds. The participating countries were selected several years ago based on the presence of well-functioning and independent SAIs and civil society organizations with the expertise to engage on issues raised in the audits.

Across the five countries, SAIs and civil society organizations selected a set of critical issues that were flagged in official audit reports where government action was lagging:

• In Argentina, this focused on underperforming government programs to prevent, diagnose and treat 1.5 million people affected by Chagas, a tropical parasitic disease.
• In Ghana, they addressed accountability and coordination challenges in the national school feeding program serving 2.6 million pupils.
• In Nepal, they partnered to strengthen the management of local development funds that support infrastructure projects, such as road, water supply and sewerage works.
• In Sierra Leone, they coordinated their efforts to ensure proper water, sanitation and hygiene facilities in schools across the country.
• In Tanzania, they pushed for the rehabilitation of dilapidated school infrastructure that has left 4 million children without proper classrooms.

In 2020, we published the first comprehensive look at the strength of audit and oversight systems globally. It came at a time when SAIs were under enormous pressure to ensure governments were effective stewards of COVID-19 emergency spending in ways that advance the public interest and protect hard-won social development progress.

Building on our joint research and advocacy, we collaborate with the INTOSAI Development Initiative to document and share what we’ve learned about how national auditors can expand stakeholder engagement and, in doing so, bolster the impact of audits.