By Mike Scott, Director Performance Audit, PASAI

It is a privilege and a pleasure to be sharing my experience with colleagues in the Pacific. I have been a performance auditor since 1987. Although the precise origins of performance auditing are debatable, performance audits became more recognised as a type of audit relatively recently, during the 1970s. So, I feel like I have been a performance auditor almost since the start of time!

Making a difference for people

I am often asked why I have been a performance auditor for so long. For me, it is because performance audits are ultimately about making a difference for people. They shine a light on how well public funds are managed and used to provide what matters to people.

The 200 or more (I haven’t done a precise count) performance audits that I have had a direct hand in have had many faces. They have covered the spectrum of public services across education, law enforcement, healthcare, defence, the environment, housing, roads, welfare support and much more. What they have had in common is providing transparency and accountability, and promoting improved performance for people.

I have valued the opportunity on each audit to offer insights and recommendations for effective delivery of public services for people. To now be able to support performance audits in the Pacific to make a difference for Pacific people is a great privilege.

Broad and deep examination of issues

Another question I am sometimes asked is what has changed in the time I have been doing performance audit. The biggest shifts I have observed are audits becoming broader and more ambitious in the range of issues they examine, and deeper and more sophisticated in how they analyse those issues.

Performance audits have shifted from primarily looking in at how well the processes, procedures and systems within public organisations are operating, to looking out at how well they are delivering. I think that performance audits now give a more rounded view of both the operational performance of public organisations and their success in delivering outcomes for people.

At the same time, performance audits have shifted to become more analytical by using more sophisticated techniques to gather evidence, drill into issues and generate insights. Interviews and document reviews, although still core evidence sources, are now augmented by techniques such as data analysis and understanding people’s ‘lived experience’.

As technology continues to rapidly advance there are new opportunities to explore for enhancing the value of performance audit, such as considering how artificial intelligence might be applied.

Strengthening performance audit in the Pacific

In my role I am focused on supporting SAIs to complete performance audits that provide transparency and accountability, and make a difference for Pacific people. I am working with SAIs to strengthen performance audit practice that is high-quality and sustainable.

Some of the ways I am doing this are by running a series of webinars and a workshop, and building an online resource bank, about applying good practice to plan, conduct and report on performance audits. We held the first webinar on 29 February and will hold the rest regularly through the year.

The five-day, in-person workshop will prepare participants to contribute to a cooperative performance audit, and the resource bank is already available to member SAI staff within our Learning Platform.

Our collective goal is Strengthening performance: making a difference in the lives of Pacific people. This is also the theme for the upcoming Congress in the Cook Islands. If I don’t meet you there, I hope there will be many other opportunities to interact in the future.