Denmark 2006 ENG

in 2006, the National Audit Office of Denmark (NAOD) requested an external assessment of its audit practice. A team of international peer reviewers assembled to give the Danish parliament (Folketing), the Public Accounts Committee, the government administration, and the public an assessment of the NAOD’s auditing practice. The peer review will determine whether the NAOD’s auditing practice is independent and suitably designed, and whether it is operating effectively to provide the Folketing with objective information about the government administration. This report has been prepared for the use of the NAOD to conclude on the peer review assessment.

The peer review focused on whether the audits at the NAOD are effective, in accordance with established international standards and in keeping with the practice of professional Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs). The review examined the performance and financial audit practices of the NAOD.

To assess whether the NAOD’s audit processes are consistent with the INTOSAI standards and their own internal guidelines, the peer review team examined five major areas of the auditing practice:

Independence and competence
Planning
Data collection and documentation
Quality control and assurance
Reporting and follow up

Meeting the standards:

The peer review team found that, overall, the NAOD’s internal guidelines, for its auditing practice, comply with international standards, and that its work is consistent with those guidelines.

Openness:

The NAOD meets very high standards of openness in the office and invites external reviewers to examine their products.
Managers and auditors communicate
openly.
Auditors at the NAOD can access all audit files to enable them to share knowledge.
Managers and auditors share a foundation of trust that each can fulfill their respective audit objectives.
Auditors are entrusted with a high degree of freedom and responsibility to complete their work.

All audit staff can make suggestions about which audits should be conducted. Suggestions are put through a planning process,which is founded on assessments of risk and financial materiality. The results of the process are discussed with the Auditor General before approval.
The NAOD has demonstrated its openness to external perspectives of its audit products, by engaging specialists to review finalized audit reports and asking those specialists to suggest ways to improve the reports. The NAOD also requested that a peer review be conducted by other SAIs, to help improve its audit processes.
Danish law fosters openness, by ensuring that NAOD documents that support audits are made available to the public upon request.
Although the NAOD has very high standards of openness, it does not interact directly with the media. Rather, it presents its reports to the Public Accounts Committee, and the Committee may discuss the results and maintain media relations.