Agenda of the third and last webinar co-organised by SIGMA and the Network of Supreme Audit Institutions of EU candidates and potential candidate countries, held on 28 June 2021. The event explores the audit of COVID-19 related expenditures.

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Network of Supreme Audit Institutions of EU Candidate and Potential
Candidate Countries and the European Court of Auditors
Audit of COVID-19 related expenditures
28 June 2021
Agenda
10h00 – 12h30 (Paris time)
Background
This is the third in a series of webinars for the SAI network examining the issues around auditing during
the COVID-19 pandemic. In this webinar we are focusing on providing assurance of the economy, efficiency
and effectiveness of programmes designed to tackle the direct and indirect impact of the COVID-19
pandemic.
The objective of the webinar is to consider how well-targeted performance audit can provide both
assurance to stakeholders on the economy, efficiency and effectiveness and provide practical
recommendations to improve service delivery. Many of the schemes introduced to tackle the pandemic
emergency are at risk of being poorly targeted and poorly designed in relation to meeting the policy
intention. The execution of such programmes may also suffer from inadequate systems and capacity. SAI’s
will have to prioritise which topics to tackle and select those which are within their capabilities. SAI’s may
have to examine their own processes and procedures to shorten audit timescales to maximise audit
impact. Many programmes dealing with the pandemic are evolving quickly, so practical recommendations
from the SAI delivered in real time are of particular value.

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28 June 2021
10h00 Welcome and Introduction
Bianca Brétéché and Alastair Swarbrick, SIGMA
Elisabeth Franco, European Court of Auditors
Eleonora Papastavrou, DG NEAR, European Commission
10h10 COVID-19 Audit: Sharing experiences
In this session we hear about experiences in conducting audits related to COVID-19
from an EU member state SAI and two members of the SAI network.
Mr. Rudi Turksema, The Netherlands Court of Audit, will provide an overview of the
COVID-19 related audits conducted by the Netherlands Court of Audit (NCA) and
elaborate on its “Coronavirus Account”. The Coronavirus Account, on the NCA website,
gives an overview and analysis of various financial support schemes financed by the
Dutch Government to support organisations during the pandemic. An interactive
dashboard contains more detailed information on specific measures linked to the
specific budget chapters.
Ms. Eva Kasmi, from the SAI of Albania will share their recent experience in planning
and conducting their performance audit “Effectiveness of management of the COVID-19
pandemic situation”.
Ms. Jasmina Galijasevic, from the SAI of Bosnia and Herzegovina, will share details
about their performance audit follow-up report on the activities of Bosnia and
Herzegovina institutions with respect to protection and rescue due to natural and other
disasters where the issue of procurement of COVID-19 vaccines was addressed.
Questions and discussion
11h20 Looking forward: Suggested future criteria for performance audits
EUROSAI Report - Auditing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic
Mr Tommi Teljosuo, Audit Director, Swedish National Audit Office, will present the
EURSOAI draft report “Auditing the response to the COVID-19 pandemic: Criteria for
audit judgement.” This report presents previously used, as well as suggested future,
criteria for performance audits of government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It
compiles current knowledge and experience from SAIs, in order to provide valuable
inspiration for future audit projects within policy areas with direct or indirect relevance
for COVID-19. The report is a product of the EUROSAI Project Group on auditing the
response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Questions and discussion
Ms. Dobrinka Veskovska, Assistant Auditor General from the SAI of the Republic of
North Macedonia, will share information about the performance audits they are
planning for 2021 related to COVID 19.

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12h00 General Discussion about issues or topics related to COVID-19 that are of importance
to the Network SAIs
During this session we will explore further issues or topics related to COVID-19 that are
of importance to the Network SAIs. This will include exploring the challenges related to
setting appropriate criteria in performance audits that have been affected by the
pandemic.
Moderated by Martin Sinclair, SIGMA Expert
12h30 Close and Next Steps
Bianca Brétéché and Alastair Swarbrick, SIGMA

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