World Bank’s Supreme Audit Institutions Independence Index   Seychelles’ audit authority ranked number one   By Gerard Govinden |11 August 2021

Auditor General Gamini Herath and his team (Photo: Louis Toussaint)

Seychelles’ audit authority, the Office of Auditor General, is has been ranked number one alongside its South African counterpart in the recent Supreme Audit Institutions Independence Index, prepared by the World Bank.

Speaking to Seychelles NATION, Auditor General Gamini Herath has said he has just one word ‒ “Proud” ‒ to describe the achievement.

Both Seychelles and South Africa received full marks – signaling that all independence indicators were met.

In its recent Supreme Audit Institutions Independence Index, the World Bank assessed 118 countries’ supreme audit institutions and scored them out of 10. The countries were assessed on whether they meet independence indicators. These are based on international standards and practices and include financial, mandate, coverage, and operational dimensions.

The Supreme Audit Institutions Independence Index – 2021 Global Synthesis Report was launched on July 27, 2021 by the World Bank.

President Wavel Ramkalawan has personally conveyed his congratulations and that of the people of the Republic of Seychelles to the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) upon being ranked the highest in the world alongside South Africa

“On behalf of the government and the people of Seychelles, it is an honour to express my warmest congratulations to your office following such a landmark achievement. Amidst immense pressures and the demanding nature of your tasks, you have all made Seychelles incredibly proud. I urge all of you to remain focused and continue to serve the country and the people to the best of your abilities. You have the important role of ensuring that corruption is eliminated and taxpayers’ contributions are spent appropriately. Rest assured of my continuous support and that of the government. Once again congratulations,” said President Ramkalawan.

The criteria for the index was set out in the 1977 Lima Declaration, which encourages audit authorities to actively work towards promoting good governance, transparency, and accountability.

According to the World Bank report, some of the challenges faced by audit offices include undue political influence, restrictions in being able to access required information to perform audits, inadequate budgets, the lack of ability to enforce compliance with audit findings, weak interactions with Parliament and lacking adequate or properly trained staff.

Seventeen other countries met most independence indicators and received the next highest grade ‒ high ‒ between 9.0 and 9.5 points and they are Argentina, Azerbaijan, Brazil, China, Colombia, Croatia, Micronesia Fed. Sts., Georgia, Kosovo, Marshall Islands, Mexico, Nepal, Peru, Russian Federation, Sudan, Turkey and Uganda.

Thirty-three (33) were ranked in the substantial class after meeting several independence indicators to score between 8.0 and 8.5 points, 37 were classified as moderate with some independence indicators met (scoring between 6.0 and 7.5 points), and 29 fell in the low category (with between 0 and 5.5 points) after only meeting a few independence indicators. Some of the countries that have been ranked low are Panama, South Sudan, Cabo Verde, Comoros, Egypt and Madagascar.

Neighbouring Mauritius falls in the substantial class

Mr Herath noted that “the results from the World Bank assessment of 118 countries show that while much has been done a lot more remains to be done to fully meet the aspirations of the 1977 Lima Declaration on the independence of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs).”

This is because the “SAIs play a pivotal role in promoting good governance, transparency, and accountability. They also contribute to monitoring the attainment of the sustainable development goals (SDGs),” he added.

In fact, this report aims to inform and better equip World Bank task teams and development partners to support the strengthening of SAIs in client countries. It also aims to help focus the ongoing collaboration between the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institution (INTOSAI) and development agencies to address the intractable SAI independence issue. The report also responds to yearnings of several development partners to better understand the degree of SAI independence in countries and regions.

“Independence is a critical foundation for the effective functioning of the SAI. Truly independent SAIs can fulfill their mandate to reduce waste and the abuse of public resources so public resources can be better channeled for programmes that fight poverty, which is a focus of the international development community and the core mission of the World Bank Group,” added Mr Herath.

The Independence of Supreme Audit Institutions (InSAI) assessment, which was used in this report, was developed by a team of SAI experts at the World Bank to measure SAI independence on an annual basis. InSAI includes 10 indicators of SAI independence that are based on international standards and practices, including legal, financial, mandate, coverage, and operational dimensions. For each indicator, a rating of 1 was given to SAIs for fully meeting the criteria, 0.5 for partially meeting the criteria, and 0 for not meeting the criteria.