World Bank urged to eye independence of audit bodies in review of countries it supports
Published:Monday | June 26, 2023 | 12:33 AM
With an estimated US$60 billion in fraud impacting the United States during the COVID-19 pandemic, Comptroller General of the US, Gene Dodaro, says that country’s Government Accountability Office (GAO) has proposed legislative changes to prevent recurrences in the future.
Dodaro, who heads the GAO in the US, said that, during the last three years of the pandemic, the GAO was asked to audit $4.6 trillion that the US Congress put forward to help the country’s health sector.
He told The Gleaner on the sidelines of a meeting of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) in Kingston last week that the GAO produced 200 reports and made more than 400 recommendations to Congress which covered the period of the pandemic.
Commenting on some of the challenges facing supreme audit institutions (SAIs) globally, Dodaro said these institutions have to be given full independence for them to carry out their mandates which promote good governance, accountability and transparency.
He said this was pivotal in ensuring that the citizens of a country can have the assurance that their governments are fulfilling their missions and mandates.
The GAO boss also emphasised the need for SAIs and auditors’ general departments to meet international auditing standards set by INTOSAI.
He was asked to comment on possible steps to encourage those countries which have failed to give full support and independence to SAIs.
Dodaro noted that a lot of these countries receive assistance from the World Bank and donor agencies.
He said a suggestion has been made for the World Bank to carry out a country level review in every area to determine if these countries are meeting commitments that go along with receiving assistance from the bank.
He said focus should also be placed on the SAIs’ independence as part of their countries’ reviews.
“They have agreed to do that and have set up a mechanism to do it by using the donor community to help focus on this as a condition for receiving continued support,” he added.