Part 7: Our international work

There are three main components to our international work:

• As Secretary General of the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI), the Auditor-General supports the capability-building work of the PASAI Secretariat. This work is funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Through PASAI, the Office provides peer support services to the Controller and Auditor-General of Samoa and the Director of Audit of the Cook Islands.
• The New Zealand Auditor-General is also the Auditor-General of the governments of Niue and Tokelau.
• We work with the global auditing community through the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI) to share and build best practice and tackle common problems faced by Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs).

Supporting PASAI to improve outcomes for Pacific people

PASAI supports SAIs across the Pacific region to build capacity and capability and advocates for improvements to integrity systems in their countries.

In 2024/25, we will support the PASAI Secretariat and governing board to implement PASAI’s new 2024-2034 strategy.

We also have peer support relationships with the Audit Office of Samoa and the Cook Islands Audit Office. These relationships provide specific support and development opportunities for staff in these offices to work closely with our staff. Funding from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade supports the development of this work.

We will continue to use our influence and reputation to support PASAI by closely collaborating with SAIs and the Secretariat team to advocate for SAI independence and effective public administration systems in the Pacific. We will also work with regional development partners to invest in good governance and robust public financial management systems in the Pacific region. One part of this work will be our quarterly integrity-themed webinar series.

Progressing audits for the governments of Niue and Tokelau

During 2024/25, we expect the preparation and auditing of the Niue and Tokelau governments’ annual accountability reporting to be up to date for the first time in many years. We will focus on maintaining this and supporting work to improve the quality of reporting. We will also increase our work to support Public Accounts Committees to scrutinise the effectiveness of government spending.

Working collaboratively with INTOSAI and other agencies

We hold responsibilities across several INTOSAI working groups on behalf of PASAI. This includes the Working Group on Environmental Auditing and the IntoSAINT¹¹ working group.

Environmental auditing

The Working Group on Environmental Auditing encourages SAIs to assess the effectiveness of government programmes and spending on environmental management and outcomes. We represent PASAI on the Working Group on Environmental Auditing and help to implement its programmes and activities in the Pacific region. In 2024/25, we will support two global climate change audit projects.

The first of these is a global co-ordinated climate change audit that involves eight Pacific SAIs carrying out climate adaptation audits.

The second is supporting Pacific SAIs to contribute to an international assessment of government climate actions in about 100 countries known as the “climate scanner”. In 2024/25, we will support Pacific SAIs to use the climate scanner to assess climate actions by their governments. As stated in Part 4 under Work under way: ClimateScanner, we will also use the climate scanner ourselves. The results of both initiatives will be consolidated and reported internationally.

Integrity

As the PASAI representative on the IntoSAINT working group, we support the ongoing development of the IntoSAINT organisational integrity assessment tool and its implementation across the Pacific region. During 2024/25, we plan to lead work to expand the group of trained IntoSAINT facilitators in the Pacific region and oversee the continued rollout of the IntoSAINT tool to SAIs and other public organisations as part of our contribution to improving the organisational capacity of SAIs.

Building on our integrity work, we will continue to support the work of PASAI through the Auditor-General’s role as Secretary General. PASAI advocates for improvements in governance, accountability, transparency, and integrity with, and on behalf of, SAIs in the Pacific region.

11: IntoSAINT is an organisational integrity assessment tool developed by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions. It is used to assess the vulnerabilities and the maturity of integrity in public organisations.