By Luke Eaton, Communications Advisor/Editor, PASAI

Civil society organisations (CSOs) are among a SAI’s most important stakeholders. But there are things SAIs need to do to nurture these relationships to ensure both parties derive value and benefits from this engagement.

Who are we talking about?

A CSO can be anything from a small, informal group of single-issue activists to a large, influential and well-funded organisation with a diverse agenda. They include faith-based organisations, non-government organisations (NGOs), labour unions and community/professional associations [1].

Here in the Pacific, we have CSOs passionate about dealing with climate change, eradicating gender-based violence, good governance, poverty alleviation and ocean custodianship, to name just a few. If an audit relates to a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG), there is a good chance there is at least one CSO who would be interested in it.

Many CSOs are members of national umbrella networks. PIANGO’s list of ‘national liaison units’ is a good place to start looking if you haven’t identified one in your jurisdiction yet.

Why are CSOs important in the Pacific?

Many who work or volunteer for CSOs are driven by their values and not the lure of lucrative financial incentives. They are usually, by default, advocates of anti-corruption. Pacific CSOs have increasingly been formally involved in national anti-corruption committees, such as in the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu [2].

They are natural allies when it comes to promoting SAI independence because they often want to use audit reports as reliable sources of data to strengthen their own advocacy work.

The Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat seeks meaningful and active engagement with CSOs, as detailed in its engagement strategy. Regionally, our lawmakers recognise the influence of CSOs as special interest groups.

CSOs can spearhead the cultural change needed to amend or create beneficial legislation which is so often dependent on consensus-driven decision making in the Pacific. The Pacific Community (SPC) credits the lobbying of CSOs with the passage of disability legislation and the increase in marriageable age (aligned to the Conventions on the Rights of the Child) in Micronesia [3].

How to help them help you

1. Invite CSOs to suggest audit topics or raise issues of concern. Depending on their mandate some SAIs can conduct formal inquiries or investigate fraud allegations as well as perform audits. Conduct an annual CSO survey and/or make submissions through an online form available year-round.

2. Consult relevant CSOs on the scope and planning of individual audits. As subject matter experts, CSOs may be able to guide you to the legislation, policies and best practices to form the auditee’s performance criteria.

3. Collect evidence from CSOs during the audit’s examination phase. Many CSOs in the Pacific are based in or have connections with rural areas and can provide you with insights not readily apparent to an auditor based in a capital city. They will likely be willing to share their assessments of government programmes.

4. Produce citizen-friendly audit report summaries and/or deliver presentations to CSOs on audit findings. CSOs may be able to use reports to legitimise their own work and attract support for it.

5. Make reports and associated material (summaries, videos, infographics) publicly available so that CSOs can easily amplify the findings. CSOs might maintain public interest in a topic long after you have distributed your one media release about the report. They can share findings within their own networks, effectively multiplying the likely impact of them.

6. Inform relevant CSOs of your involvement in legislative hearings (such as by the PAC) to help monitor implementation. CSOs can pressure governments and their agencies to make desired improvements. They will likely take an interest in any follow-up audit.

It may well be CSOs who are the ones relentlessly advocating for positive changes based on your audit recommendations and preventing your reports from merely collecting dust on a shelf.

Cultivating relationships

In some Pacific nations, SAIs may still be in a ‘discovery’ stage of their relationship with CSOs. This represents a great opportunity to educate them (with pamphlets, videos and/or presentations) about the SAI’s role in public finance management.

While encouraging CSO involvement in the audit cycle, it’s important to manage expectations. CSOs are not necessarily politically neutral so SAIs need to be mindful about their motivations and the perception of bias. Make it obvious to them that the SAI retains control on the decisions about audit topics and budget allocation as well as the timing of report submission for tabling.

SAIs in the Pacific are by no means immune to the occasional threat to independence. However, after several years of effective engagement with CSOs you are likely to have many enthusiastic and civic-minded defenders of your office.

Want to know more?

INTOSAI’s Engagement with Civil Society – A Framework for SAIs and CAAF’s Collaborating for Change series are great resources.

We will also conduct a virtual workshop on Effective Stakeholder Engagement on 19, 20 and 22 July 2022, with a focus on how to effectively communicate audit objectives, findings and recommendations to all stakeholders and CSOs in particular.

During the workshop, we will launch the PASAI Stakeholder Engagement Toolkit. It includes a citizen-friendly audit report summary template and a presentation template explaining the role of a SAI and audit findings and recommendations to stakeholders. SAIs are encouraged to submit nominations by 8 July to Annie.SubactaginMatto@pasai.org.

References

[1] Development Asia: Participation Tools for the Pacific – Part 1: Engaging Pacific Civil Society Organizations

[2] UNDP: Pacific Civil Society Engagement to Address Corruption and Promote Public Accountability and Transparency

[3] Pacific Community: Pacific-style Advocacy

The Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) is the official association of supreme audit institutions (SAIs) in the Pacific region, promoting transparent, accountable, effective and efficient use of public sector resources in the Pacific. It contributes to that goal by helping its member SAIs improve the quality of public sector auditing in the Pacific to recognised high standards. Our blog includes topics that may help auditors think about some implications to service delivery because of the global coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).