This document provides the agenda for a two-day workshop on digital auditing between the Network of SAIs of EU Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries and the European Court of Auditors. The workshop will discuss strategic approaches to digital auditing, challenges faced, and examples of current practices. Several SAIs will present case studies of digital audits they have conducted. The European Court of Auditors will discuss their strategy and plans for digital auditing, including experiments with technologies like process mining, data analytics, and artificial intelligence. Participants will discuss next steps and ways to continue cooperation on developing digital audit capacities and skills across the Network.
2. 2
Background
The Heads of the Network of Supreme Audit Institutions of Candidate and Potential Candidate Countries and
European Court of Auditors (the Network), during their meeting on 11 October 2017 in Luxemburg, agreed on a
new Work Plan for Network activities for 2018 and beyond. A number of activities included in the Work Plan related
to Information Technology and its audit. In line with the Work Plan, the State Audit Office of North Macedonia and
SIGMA are hosting this workshop on digital auditing.
Over the last decade, digital technology has become an increasingly familiar part of everyday life. Government,
public services, businesses and citizens have become increasingly dependent on it operating successfully. New
technology creates opportunities to deliver public services in different ways, it also creates new expectations of
how public services should look and operate in this digital age. It opens new possibilities for interacting with and
empowering citizens, but also creates risks.
Supreme Audit Institutions, as they look to address the issues and risks that are relevant to their stakeholders need
to respond to the digital age. We need to think about how we respond to the digitalisation of government
operations and public services in planning our work; how we use digital tools and technology to support our audit
work; and, how we build the relevant capacity and skills throughout our institutions.
Objective and format of the Roundtable
The objective of the Workshop is to create a platform for discussion amongst the Network SAIs about the issues
and challenges they face in developing digital auditing and consider how we can respond to challenges of increased
digitalization across the public sector. During the Workshop, participating SAIs will share examples of their current
practices in IT audit, auditing digital services and using digital tools and techniques. There will also be discussion
about the strategic issues and challenges that the SAIs need to address. A selection of EU member state SAIs will
provide examples.
The Workshop will be interactive and include case presentations. Experts from EU Member States will provide
examples of their experiences. Participants will be asked to present and share experience from their countries. The
meeting will also provide all participants with the opportunity to meet informally and compare national
experiences and discuss specific issues among peers.
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Wednesday 6 November 2019
12h30 Registration and light lunch
13h30 Opening of the Workshop, Welcome
SAO of North Macedonia
Alastair Swarbrick, Senior Adviser, SIGMA
13h45 Digital Audit - A Strategic Approach
Morag Campsie, Senior Manager, Audit Scotland – Responsible for monitoring the digital policy and
delivering Audit Scotland’s Digital Strategy
Audit Scotland will present their strategic approach to digital audit. This will consider their strategy
within their national context and why digital audit is important. They will discuss what they are doing
and plan to do in developing digital audit, exploring the challenges they face and how they are
overcoming them. In particular they will discuss how they are
• integrating digital risk into financial and performance audit
• using digital technology and tools to deliver audit work
• developing skills and capacity across Audit Scotland
The presentation will also provide practical examples of tools Audit Scotland are using, specifically, the
data warehouse and data visualisation.
Followed by a Q+A session
15h00 Coffee Break
15h30 Moderated panel/group discussion for all Network SAIs about the approach, challenges and efforts
of Network SAIs to digital auditing
Based on the presentation of Audit Scotland the SAIs will share their own experiences and strategic
initiatives concerning digital auditing highlighting the key challenges they face and measures they
have taken to overcome them.
Moderator: Alastair Swarbrick, SIGMA
16:45 Wrap up of the first day
17h00 End of first day
Free evening
4. 4
Thursday 7 November 2019
08h30 Welcome coffee
09h00 Opening of day two
9h30 Digital Auditing – Addressing the opportunities and challenges of Digital Technology
Ingrīda Kalniņa-Junga, Head of IT Audit, State Audit office, Latvia
This presentation will highlight the efforts and experiences of the SAO of Latvia with respect to digital
auditing and discuss how SAIs address the opportunities and challenges of developments in
technology. It presents the SAO approach to digital and IT audit, including digital tools used, and
explains how IT auditors contribute to financial, compliance and performance audits.
Followed by Q+A session
10h30 Sharing of experiences about approaches to digital auditing
The SAIs will share their experience in digital auditing highlighting their key activities and experiences
1. SAO of Macedonia (15-20 Min) “Audit on HR Management Information System in the Public Sector ”
2. TCA (15-20 Min) e-Government Projects Audit Model
3. SAI of Albania (15-20 Min) Audit of the e-Albania Platform
Followed by Q+A session
11h30 Coffee break
12h00 Digital Audit at the European Court of Auditors
Konstantinos Chatzis, Program Manager, Directorate of Information, Workplace and Innovation,
European Court of Auditors
The ECA will talk about their approach to digital audit. The presentation will discuss their strategy and
plans, and present ECALab where experiments are undertaken with digital audit technologies. It will
provide an overview of the solutions they are considering and preparing for, including process mining,
data analytics, blockchain, and artificial intelligence. It will also present an example of a project being
undertaken called “Digital Audit for Executive agencies pilot” where data analytics, RPA and process
mining are being piloted.
Q+A, discussion
13h00 Buffet lunch
14h00 Sharing of experiences about approaches to digital auditing - continued
The SAIs will share their experience in digital auditing highlighting their key activities and experiences
1. SAI of Serbia (15-20 Min) experiences and challenges in IT audits
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2. SAI of Bosnia and Herzegovina (15-20 Min) experiences and challenges with respect to IT audits and
a performance audit on e-operations of BIH government
3. SAI of Montenegro (15-20 Min) current practice and experiences in conducting IT audits
4. SAI of Kosovo∗
(15-20 Min)
Short Q+A after each presentation
15h30 Coffee break
16h00 Discussion about next steps and the way forward
Based on the discussions that took place during the workshop, all SAIs are invited to share views on
the next possible steps for the Network.
Moderator: Alastair Swarbrick, SIGMA
17h00 End of Workshop
19h00 Cocktail– Marriott Hotel
20h00 Dinner – Marriott Hotel
∗
This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244/99
and the Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice on Kosovo’s declaration of independence