South West Asia Regional Meeting

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South West Asia Regional Meeting
Financial accountability

• Hyderabad, India 9-11 October 2009

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Agenda

• OIGs findings after 4 years
• Responses to challenges faced

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OIG specific findings (1)

• 8 country audits review of suspended grants
• Finding 1 CCM role need for effective
  mechanisms to oversee grants
• Finding 2 Compliance with Grant Agreement no
  enforcement mechanism if non-compliance eg SR
  audit missing, clearance of CPs
• Finding 3 salaries and allowances is an area
  prone to abuse, top-ups and allowances higher
  than other DPs, no clear policies established

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OIG specific findings (2)

• Finding 4 examples of weak financial management
  and internal control systems eg insufficient
  internal policies and procedures
• Finding 5 LFA role under scrutiny, some concerns
  raised about scope of work, LFA TORs not
  addressing the risks
• Finding 6 risk management framework. Should be
  applied at grant level, not just country level
• Finding 7 no formal process to ensure OIG
  recommendations implemented

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OIG lessons learnt

• Secretariat needs to be proactive rather than
  reactive eg SR audit compliance
• Need to adopt a more tailored approach to
  managing risks at country/grant level eg tailor
  the LFA ToRs
• More guidance needed on financial
• matters (particularly on certain
• categories of expenditure)
• e.g. no formal policy on salaries
• and top-ups

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Changes of focus addressing the accountability
risks (1)

• PR assessment process catching issues earlier,
  focus on capacity building and effective TA
• Progress reporting enhanced accountability,
  focus on SR expenditures, EFR
• EFR using the tool to improve resource
  allocations, budgeting, financing decisions
  (forward-looking tool)

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Changes of focus addressing the accountability
risks (2)

• Linking the outputs with the Value for money
  expand the scope
• Grant audit focus on compliance, especially SR
  audit and follow up of audit findings
• Provide guidance to implementers on financial
  matters
• Working with LFAs to address ToRs what do we
  want out of the service?

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Questions
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Building blocks of accountability

• Grantee assessment
• Grant budget and grant agreement
• Progress reporting
• EFR annual requirement
• Annual audit