By Luke Eaton – Communications Advisor, PASAI (Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions)
“More than 30 staff from 20 audit offices attended one of two recent PASAI stakeholder engagement workshops. The numbers are deceptive. What this means in our vast but sparsely populated region of the world, is that we achieved a 100 per cent attendance rate from our developing SAIs. It also means some of them tapped further into their modest budgets to send multiple staff along – a big ask of very small offices.
What accounts for the high interest in stakeholder engagement?
Many of our members have clearly articulated in their capacity development plans their prioritisation of effective communication and engagement with key stakeholders.
For a long time, some might have thought of stakeholder engagement as a luxury that is separate to auditing. However, we’ve spent a long time saying that stakeholder engagement is more than simply trying to amplify the impact of all that hard auditing work (important though that is). Stakeholder engagement is also a core part of establishing, trust, credibility and respect in doing the audit work. So, we are delighted to see such a strong desire to improve this dimension of auditing and accept the support we can provide.
It is even more impressive when you consider that many of the communications activities we associate with auditing (whether that is drafting an opinion or report, following up a recommendation or recording a video about cooperative audit findings) occur in a language that is, for most Pacific Islanders, not their mother tongue.
An overview of workshop content
In our workshops we dedicated some time to the importance that the INTOSAI Principles and the SAI Performance Measurement Framework place on communications, leaving no doubt about its value for SAIs.
Our stakeholder identification and prioritisation mapping activities helped participants understand the different expectations they have of key stakeholder groups and the different expectations those groups have of SAIs.
Many workshop sessions were themed around specific stakeholder groups, such as the legislature, audited entities, the media and the public. Within these sessions participants learned practical steps to maximise their engagement, sharing concepts and techniques whose application extends beyond single stakeholder groups. For example, we:
- stressed the value of plain language when engaging with audited entities and most other groups
- examined the benefits of stakeholder engagement throughout almost everything that a SAI does from planning to reporting
- guided participants on crafting actionable recommendations, drafting media releases, maximising their impact with social media content, and incorporating multimedia into audit reports and related communications
- gave practical examples of how SAIs could communicate the value and impact of their work to stakeholders.
The workshops built on previous PASAI training that includes developing and implementing a stakeholder engagement strategy, report writing, interpersonal communications and media interview preparation.
Importantly, the training included the sharing of expertise and experiences of SAI staff from within our own region.
For example, senior staff at the Office of the Auditor General of the Republic of Fiji explained the role stakeholder engagement played in the review of their Audit Act. In a video, they provided meticulous details about how they coordinated, planned and organised a deliberate and inclusive engagement process, while admitting that they, “learned on the go”.
They described how they invited public attendance at consultation sessions through social media and newspaper advertisements, and issued invitations to various public entities, professional associations and civil society organisations.
Their independence journey, “was never about drafting legislation in isolation,” they said.
“We recognised early that broad-based stakeholder engagement was essential to build a shared understanding and secure the necessary support.
“This broad-based engagement fostered a sense of shared ownership of the legal reforms and secured ‘buy-in’ from both government and non-government actors.
“As SAIs around the world strive to advance independence, we hope our experience contributes to that shared mission.”
Beneficial reforms were passed into law in the Fiji Audit Act 2025.
Turning lessons into actions
We required all participants to present short- and long-term plans for implementing lessons from the workshop, customised to the realities they face with their various stakeholders. We provided action templates to encourage them to plan the practical steps they would need to take and whose help they would need to make changes happen.
The changes participants outlined in their presentations did not suffer from a lack of ambition. We provided feedback on the presentations, mentioning resources that might help them along the way.
Within a week of the workshops, we emailed the participants asking them to commit to actioning at least three ‘quick wins’. We’ve since followed up on the progress of those commitments with the participants of the first workshop we ran last November.
Since the workshop, SAIs have been inspired to:
- create a post-audit survey template
- invite responses face-to-face instead of just by post
- revise their stakeholder engagement strategy
- distribute community outreach materials on an audit
- document feedback in audit workpapers.
We will continue to follow up with the SAIs to ensure our training has a tangible, long-term impact.”