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.'
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Management of Police Information Resources
, monitoring, evaluation and coordination and other aspects of registers and IS strategic management. The audited period was 2012-2014. For the analysis, there were used previous data and data of 2015 ... Police tasks of the necessary data are processed departmental registers, information systems, automated data processing systems and networks where information is stored, processed and transferred ... to the classified information. The police department has all of these information resources, so the audit focused on the activities and actions of the Department to ensure planning and organizing of the recourses ... ... Fundamentals of IT organisation ... Review by SAI Lithuania makes readers aware that nowadays it is difficult to develop a larger IT system without whole conceptual infrastracture: planning composed into strategy of the organisation ... and well understood architecture of information. Well functioning IT management structures, which on the other hand may sound trivial, were proved here as the key to success.
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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 ... 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 ... 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
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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.
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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.
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Staff scheduling in government institutions
Scheduling irregular hours work Danish Rigsrevisionen shows in their study problems with staff scheduling in government institutions where employees are required to work irregular hours. Optimized staff scheduling contributed to reducing payroll costs. On the other hand, problems with rearrangement of work, recording working hours, optimisation of staffing levels and analysis of overtime triggers - add up to high costs of workforce. IT is not always used as ally either.
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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.
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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.
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ACQUISITION REFORM: DOD Should Streamline Its Decision-Making Process for Weapon Systems to Reduce Inefficiencies
Refinement of decision-making processes The US Department of Defense (DOD) has long sought to improve the efficiency of its weapon system acquisition process, including the time and effort needed to complete the milestone decision process. Good practices of some DOD programs and five commercial firms were used by GAO to look for new momentum in refining the process.
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ACQUISITION REFORM: DOD Should Streamline Its Decision-Making Process for Weapon Systems to Reduce Inefficiencies
Refinement of decision-making processes The US Department of Defense (DOD) has long sought to improve the efficiency of its weapon system acquisition process, including the time and effort needed to complete the milestone decision process. Good practices of some DOD programs and five commercial firms were used by GAO to look for new momentum in refining the process.
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