Coordinated Audit on Information Technology Governance
IT governance needs awareness and SAIs' support The OLACEFS auditors found that the greatest challenge for the SAIs is to raise the awareness of the audit institutions about the importance of IT governance and the benefits that could be obtained by improving its degree of maturity. The audit was conducted by 11 SAIs and coordinated by TCU of Brasil. They concluded: 'It is important, even urgent, to invest resources to implement or enhance: the IT committees; the IT planning process; strategic IT planning; monitoring the IT contracting process; the business continuity plan; the designation of a responsible person or unit to manage security information; a risk management process; an asset inventory process; an information security committee; and a policy for access control.'
Full description

Parallel Audit on Biometric Passports - Overall Results (anonymised)
A biometric passport (or ePassport) contains biometric information which serves to authenticate the identity of travellers. Biometric passport management is the process of establishing ... and implementing the regulation on standards for security features and biometrics in passports and travel documents issued by the member states. The aim is to develop and maintain efficient and secure biometric ... passport production procedures (see page 5). ... EUROSAI ITWG: Parallel Audit on Biometric Passports ... deficiencies and weaknesses related to the IS/IT system and the IT management. Medium risks have been identified in the area of laws and regulations, cost-benefit realisation and transparency, as well ... Swiss SAI summed up results of audits concluded in seven countries (Belgium, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Switzerland). The evaluation of the reported results showed that the overall passport ... process is generally under control while a couple of high-risk findings were identified in the non-process-specific assessments. In the non-process-specific assessments, most of the countries found
Full description

Is the project 'E-health in Latvia' a step towards the right direction?
of funds invested in the project for achievement of set objectives and gaining the planned benefits. Audit covered such main questions: 1) Will the e-health policy be able to solve problems and achieve ... Objective of the audit was to verify efficiency and productivity of the actions by the institutions in charge for implementation of the e-health, as well as to audit economy and productivity of use ... the objective? 2) Are the actual activities performed by the National Health Service justified for achievement of the set objectives? 3) Will necessary information security and personal data protection be ensured ... E-health is a step forward in right direction, but not all objectives will be reached! ... Project “E-health in Latvia” supports healthy lifestyle, it will provide valuable and accessible information and will promote more efficient provision of services to patients. It is undoubtedly ... a step towards the right direction then. However, as found the Latvian SAI, the e-health policy will not be implemented within the initially planned scope and deadline and within set data security levels ... , thus the objective of this policy – to promote more effective provision of healthcare services will be attained only partially.
Full description

Copyright Office Needs to Develop Plans that Address Technical and Organizational Challenges
The mission of the Copyright Office, a service unit within the Library of Congress, is to promote creativity by administering and sustaining a national copyright system. As part of this mission ... , the Copyright Office registers about 500,000 creative works a year for copyright and records documentation related to copyright transfer and sale. In recent years, the Register of Copyrights has discussed ... the need for a modernized Copyright Office, to include upgrades to the current IT environment. ... No justified investments without IT strategy ... GAO shows in its report on the US Copyright Office, what is a role of IT strategy in organisaion. Effects can be found at the bottom and at the top: the lack of strategic plan can make it more ... difficult to solve practical problems, but it can also put the overall mission of the Office at risk.
Full description

Conflicts of interest
First, recognise the conflicts of interest are a real risk the British NAO gathered a significant amount of intelligence on conflicts, particularly in the health and education sectors. These are areas of government where services are increasingly commissioned and delivered by parties at arm’s-length to departments. Conflicts of interest can occur naturally as a product of the way a system is designed and most often arise from operational situations.
Full description

Audit of the key ICT project federal GEVER programme Federal Chancellery
During the first stage, two new GEVER (electronic records and process management) products were procured in an open WTO tender within the framework of the two-product strategy (federal GEVER WTO ... procurement project). CHF 1.6 million was spent on these. The departments and Federal Chancellery (departments/FCh) had to choose one of the two products within three months of the contract being awarded. ... ... Advanced process management system's cost-effectiveness and deadlines at risk ... Ever since 1990, sequential controls and file management have been part of the Federal Administration's IT landscape (GEVER business administration). Significant obstacles have to be overcome ... in order to ensure the successful creation and introduction of GEVER. Previous efforts did not have any widespread success and led to a diverse GEVER landscape. The federal GEVER project has now laid ... the foundations for simplification and centralisation.
Full description

Audit of the procurement of ICT products with the potential to be standard products
ICT procurement system reviewed SFAO points out what is critical in ICT procurement. Requirements management is extremely important, as well as procurement strategies for relevant product groups. Legal rules should protect investments and support competition, but they can still be insufficient without appropriate reporting - if you want your system to adapt to changes.
Full description

State funds spent on development, operation and using of data centres services
The aim of the audit was to scrutinise the management of funds spent on building and operating the national data centre (hereinafter “STC1 data centre”), including the expenditure of selected ... organisational units of the state on buying hosting, server-housing and other related services. The audited period was between 2010 and 2014; where relevant, the preceding period was also scrutinised. Audited ... entities: Ministry of the Interior (“MoI”); Ministry of Finance (“MoF”); STÁTNÍ TISKÁRNA CENIN, state firm (state banknote printing firm, hereinafter “STC” or “the state firm”). The audit was conducted ... ... Risks steming from uncoordinated strategy ... SAI of Czech Republic analysed consequences of failures in strategic IT management at the state level. Lack of coordination and implementation rules reduced practical role of the ministry whose task ... was to guard high quality standards for all crucial IT systems in the state administration. Next consecquences were (among others) risk of uneconomical results of large IT investment and risk of inefficient ... supply of services, as well as opposite results of workforce reduction.
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

Central government staff costs
Results of staff reductions The British NAO found that departments had significantly reduced numbers of their civil servants and of course salary costs at the same time. But they reduced staff numbers mainly by minimising recruitment, and the age profile of the civil service has changed. NAO pays a lot attention to what effect this has had on the future pipeline of talent and skills. It reminds also that the departments need long-term operating models to work efficiently with the staff reduced.
Full description