An article about successful cooperation between the State Audit Office of Georgia (SAOG) and Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) was published in a periodical journal – “Good Practice Examples in the Capacity Building of Supreme Audit Institutions” of European Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (EUROSAI).
The article reviews the history of fruitful cooperation between two supreme audit institutions which dates back in 2010. The Swedish National Audit Office significantly supported the SAOG during its transformation from the Chamber of Control of Georgia to the State Audit Office. The original cooperation focused on five different areas:
- Performance audit;
- Financial audit;
- Internal and external communication;
- Management of an SAI;
- IT infrastructure strategy.
As a result of the first stage of the cooperation, manuals compliant with the ISSAI standards have been produced, both for performance and financial audits. At the same time, due to the active HR policies and training, the SAOG staff capabilities overall have improved.
Moreover, the article outlines several key factors which contributed to making the cooperation successful:
- Comprehensive assistance from the Swedish side;
- Communication between Swedish and Georgian members of Parliament;
- Flexible approach;
- Coordination of work with other donors (such as GIZ and others);
- Commitment of the SAOG management to carry on with the modernization of the institution despite organizational difficulties;
- Active HR policy and investment in staff development at the SAOG.
Finally, the second phase of the cooperation is being prepared for 2014–2016. The new Memorandum of Understanding reflects developments and experiences of the previous cooperation and foresees cooperation in more specific areas – communication during and after the audit process, improving quality control/quality assurance and making strategic choices between wider policy areas for performance auditing.
