Online fraud
Uneven response to online fraud This type of fraud can affect everyone, but yet it is not a strategic priority for local police forces and the response from industry is uneven. UK NAO underlines: For too long, as a low-value but high-volume crime, online fraud has been overlooked by government, law enforcement and industry. It is a crime that can affect everyone. Fraud is now the most commonly experienced crime in England and Wales, is growing rapidly and demands an urgent response. Yet fraud is not a strategic priority for local police forces, and the response from industry is uneven.
Full description

Open Data Trend Report 2015
How to activate the open data policy The Dutch SAI looks for ways to improve open data practice in the Netherlands. They point at experience of two leading countries: UK and US, and advise to: prepare a concrete action plan, to increase number of mandatory published data, to develop government-wide data inventory and to put open data to work.
Full description

The protection of valuable forest
Protection of valuable forest Protection of valuable forest land is an important mean of achieving the environmental quality objectives. Governments can establish formal protection of forests through the formation of national parks, biotope conservation areas, nature reserves or by signing nature conservation agreements. Beyond the state's formal protection of forests, the forest owners themselves are also expected to contribute through voluntary set-asides of forest. From a state perspective, it is important to investigate whether or not the resources for formal protection are being used cost-effectively. However, in order to achieve cost-effective formal protection work, the state also needs to address forest owners' voluntary set asides.
Full description

The effectiveness of Official Development Assistance expenditure
Need of more coordination and transparency The audit of the UK's Official Development Assistance revealed among others: fragmented responsibilities and difficulties in review and reporting. These led to difficulties in assessment of effectiveness of the assistance and of progress in implementing the UK Aid Strategy.
Full description

The protection of IT systems and health data in three Danish regions
Security to be improved in IT systems with health data It is Rigsrevisionen’s assessment that the three regions are not protecting the access to IT systems and health data in a satisfactory manner. As a consequence, unauthorised persons might gain access to sensitive and confidential personal data, which could affect there liability and availability of important health data used in the treatment of hospital patients. Based on the results of the study and the current threat scenario, Rigsrevisionen finds that basic security measures against cyber attacks and protection of access to IT systems and health data should be a top priority for Denmark’s five regions. Basic security measures in combination with management and control of user privileges can reduce the risk of compromising the regions’ IT systems and data considerably.
Full description

The Shared Services Centre
The necessary environment for the efficient management of the Shared Service Center is lacking The department's administration of the Shared Services Centre (SSC) has been effective for sharing resources between the departments and delivering selected back-office services to a small client base. However, the governance arrangements established to oversight the SSC have not positioned it well for the future and the departments have not yet determined if the arrangement is efficient and resulting in savings. ANAO found instances where the advisory board of SSC was not consulted or involved in decisions relating to the strategic direction, financial arrangements and expenditure priorities. Information reported to the board did not focus on areas of strategic importance and the quality and completeness of this information could be improved. The mechanisms established for setting out responsibilities and obligations and ensuring transparency for services delivered by the SSC was weak. Service standards and levels were not fixed and can change. The delineation of responsibilities between the SSC and its clients was not clear and there was no commitment by the SSC to certify the quality of its control framework.
Full description

Working of Inland Container Depots and Container Freight Stations
NEW! Online report on audit of SAI India With this first digital audit report of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, new chapter has been opened in our profession: the online form is primary versus printable pdf. Advantages: high level of readability, live responsive charts, easy browsing and search of what users find interesting. The reported performance audit concerned 'dry ports', or multimodal logistics centres, which play growing role in domestic and international trade. It shows how gaps in concept and lax attitude to internal control can result on capacities, speed of trade, and enviromental safety.
Full description

Does the state administration effectively use the stored information?
State administration could use the accumulated information more effectively Latvian auditors found that government institutions have a good cooperation in the area of data use, but there are still several areas wherein a person still has to perform the function of a 'courier'. Many channels of data exchange and distribution used in state administration create a fragmented and complicated environment for maintenance of ICT, while responsible ministry does not become actively involved and does not coordinate cooperation of institutions.
Full description

Has Public Administration Used All Opportunities for Efficient Management of ICT Infrastructure?
Efficient Management of ICT Infrastructure Centralised management of ICT services and infrastructure would allow the institutions to optimise in long run their resources – financial, human, material and technical. However, we observed during the audit that the move towards ICT centralisation and single data centres has ceased. The different ministries and even the institutions subordinated to the same ministry do not cooperate sufficiently with each other regarding the ICT management, maintenance, and infrastructure placement. They rather choose to maintain their own, sometimes even several, data centres.
Full description