NIK peer review report - Najwyższa Izba Kontroli

ic external reviews regarding their adequacy, conclusiveness, readability,etc.Improving the readability of reports will help NIK to ensure that its messagesget across to a larger audience and address other stakeholders thanthe auditees under audit and the recipients of the reports in parliament.See ISSAI 400 ReportingStandards in Governmentauditing, par. 24-25Recommendation # 9. Increase the use of positive examples inaudit reports to increase learning among auditeesTraditionally, auditing is focused on finding errors and irregularities andless on identifying positive examples and good practice. However, it is increasinglyconsidered good practice for SAIs to focus also on examples ofgood practice encountered during the audit. Among the peers it is becomingcommon practice to present a balanced view and highlight not onlynegative findings, but also positive examples in the audit reports.Focusing on good practice among auditees promotes positive changes andprovides benchmarks against which the auditees can measure themselves.The peers find that NIK only occasionally report on positive findingsand primarily highlights negative findings. Positive findings are generallyonly referred to under the term ‘no irregularities found’, whereas deficienciesare diligently listed. The reason for this might be that NIK is often requiredto justify its negative remarks, which therefore must be more elaborate,whereas positive remarks are readily accepted.In a report reviewed by the peers, NIK presented negative as well as positiveexamples of auditees’ practice in small text boxes in the margin of thereport. The peers consider this a relevant approach to highlighting goodpractice that others can learn from.According to the stakeholders, audit findings are balanced in the contextof the audits, but the audit reports do not provide the auditees with anopportunity to benchmark themselves against other parts of the administration.Consequently, it is important that NIK elaborates on the underlyingcauses of a problem and if possible explains the causes of theproblems. Knowing whether a particular irregularity is an isolated mistakeor reflecting a problem within procedures, interpretation of the regulations,etc. is important.NIK could benefit from balancing findings and presenting best practice andpositive examples. Highlighting positive examples would give the auditeesan opportunity to learn from best practice and would increase the forward-lookingaspects of the audits.26 PEER REVIEW REPORT