Auditing / Research - Research for the Court of Auditors
Do you recognise this situation?You as a local Court of Auditors (Committee) are responsible for carrying out research. However, you are not meant to do the research yourselves, or you do not have the time to. You do, however, have very clear ideas about the research that has to be done. This is why you are looking for a trusted party that may help you carry out the research without making you lose control of the content.
We received the following question
A Court of Auditors Committee in the north of the Netherlands felt that the quality of the granting of subsidies might constitute a risk. So they wanted to inspect this. They especially wanted to know whether or not the municipality was capable of realising the things it intended with the funds. The Court of Auditors Committee furthermore wanted very much to know to what extent the municipality kept to the rules and procedures. The Court of Auditors Committee wanted to stay closely involved in the execution of this audit.
We approached this question as follows
The approach was characterised by the following elements:
- The Court of Auditors Committee had already drawn up a number of research questions. In consultation with ACS, a few more were added. ACS then translated all these research questions into assessment criteria. The assessment criteria were submitted to the Court of Auditors Committee again. This made it crystal clear before we commenced the audit what we were to investigate and which standards we would use.
- The set-up of the study was also discussed with the civil organisation prior to its start, so as to generate support for the audit there, as well.
- In the course of the audit, several members of the Court of Auditors Committee participated in the interviews. This gave them more feeling for the content of the study.
This yielded the following result
The audit proved that a number of improvements were still needed in order to optimise the quality of the granting of subsidies. Thanks to the sound preparation and the collaboration with the civil organisation, these points for improvement were quickly recognised, enthusiastically received and the improvement measures implemented with priority. As the Court of Auditors Committee had been closely involved in the set-up and execution of the research, they were very well capable of presenting the results themselves.