Caroline Morin | Experience Sharing | Carrying out a Follow-Up Peer Review
The UK National Audit Office (NAO) undertook a peer review of the French SAI (Cour des comptes) from September to December 2020, following a request by its First President, Pierre Moscovici. The NAO’s review was requested in several specific areas identified at the outset of the reflection within the French financial jurisdictions’ (the Court of Accounts and the Regional and Territorial Chambers of Accounts) multi-year strategy under development. These areas include the Court’s advisory role to the institutions and bodies it oversees, the evaluation of public policies, and its relations with citizens.
After concluding that the Court of Auditors was regarded by its stakeholders as independent and trustworthy, the NAO made several recommendations on the programming of work, audit approaches and stakeholder engagement. These recommendations have provided highly valuable insights that helped shape the Court’s new five-year strategy, JF2025.
In 2024, with more than 75% of the JF 2025 strategy actions implemented and new questions emerging, the Court sought to draw on its partner’s external perspective to assess the progress achieved and identify new opportunities for optimising its actions.
As in its 2020 peer review, the newly dedicated NAO team carried out an independent and objective assessment in line with the process set out in INTOSAI’s GUID 1900 and the recognized principles governing audits conducted by SAIs. The team conducted two missions at the Court: the first in March 2024 and the second in May 2024.
In its follow-up review, the NAO provided observations on the recommendations identified in its previous peer review. The report highlighted the significant progress made since 2020 by the French financial jurisdictions: enhanced interaction with citizens, staff engagement in shaping a new strategy, the introduction of new forms of audit, shorter timelines for public policy evaluations, and the development of digital platforms. The NAO experts suggested that the Court develop a formalized strategy to structure its relations with institutions and the public, and to clarify the objectives of its rapid audits by piloting more targeted evaluations.
These new proposals, which need to be tailored to the French context, have opened up fresh avenues for reflection on how to further improve the ongoing work of the French SAI in serving citizens.
Read the peer review published in 2021
Read the NAO follow-up review published in 2025
#FollowUp #PeerReview2020 #MultiYearStrategy #OptimisationOpportunities #GUID1900 #CitizensInteraction #StaffEngagement #NewAuditForms #RapidAudits