On June 4, 2021, a webinar of the EUROSAI Project Group “Follow-up of the implementation of audit recommendations” was held.

The project was launched by the SAIs of Belgium, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and Spain in January 2019 as part of the implementation of Strategic Goal 1 of the EUROSAI Strategic Plan 2017-2023 “Supporting effective, innovative and relevant audit solutions by promoting and brokering professional cooperation”. During the webinar, the participants were presented the results of a survey about the various systems of follow-up of the implementation of audit recommendations replied by 33 European SAIs took part.

Steven Bernagie, senior auditor director in the Court of Audit Belgium, noted that the evaluating of impact of audit recommendations can be done in different ways. SAIs can, for example, assess the performance through surveys among auditees, legislators or civil society representatives; monitor the media, analyze the financial results of the organization after the audit.

Among the factors that affect the implementation of audit recommendations, the experts identified: a constructive relationship between the auditor and the auditee; the audit report quality; existence of a follow-up mechanism; parliamentary involvement; dissemination of the follow-up report. For the successful implementation of the audit recommendations SAIs were recommended to prepare relevant, operational and targeted recommendations; engage the auditee or the government in the follow-up of the implementation of recommendations; provide for an effective recommendation monitoring and follow-up system that checks the implementation in a timely manner, conduct an open information policy and  report the results of the follow-up system in a clear and informative way.

More information about the research results can be found here.