Dissemination of Audit Results to Different Stakeholders

Targeting the right audience

Given the objective to expand the use of audit reports, it is necessary to identify potential beneficiaries. A series of questions must first be posed

  • Whose interest is the audit topic likely to raise?
  • Does the topic respond to issues that stakeholders have brought to the SAI’s attention?
  • Does the topic cover an area of high risk that demands urgent action? If so, who can take action in this field?
  • Does the topic refer to an area in which specific agents have already taken action? If so, who are these agents? And what have they done?

Answering these questions will help to identify the audience of a specific report. However, it can take a great deal of time and a lot of resources to target a wide audience working on a certain field. This is nevertheless a necessary step, so it is important to create a database of potential beneficiaries according to type of agent and topics of interest.

Check the following example:

SUBJECT OF THE REPORT: Education

AUDIENCE SPECIFIC AGENTS AREA OF EXPERTISE/INTEREST ACTIONS UNDERTAKEN
Legislature

Education Commission

Education

Bills on education

Finance Commission

Education budget

Budget allocation

Civil Society

CSO

Litigation on human rights

CSO that litigated to ensure effective access to education by children living in urban slums

 

Think Tank

Education policy

Think Tank that developed a series of policy analysis on the national education system

 

Work Unions gathering professionals on education

Representation and aggregation of workers´ rights and interests

Demands on improvement of teachers’ income and working conditions

 

Colleges of Graduates and Teachers

Education policy

Participation in education bills

 

Students´ governments

Defense of students’ right to education

Participation in the design of courses and programs on education

 

Boards of education

Education policy

Participation in the design of courses and education programs

Media

Graphic Media Journalists

Electronic Press Journalists

Radio Journalists

Communication on education issues or other broader themes

Journalists who broadly covered the news on education bill /developed an investigation on corruption in education budget allocation / other related activities.

Other state agencies

Ombudsman

Prosecutor Office

Litigation on human Rights

Litigation to defend right to education

Independent experts

Former Ministers of Education

Former deans of Education

Experts or consultants

Education research and policies

Research has been used by policy makers in the field of education

Any comments? Please notify us here.

Bibliography

Nino, E. (2009): “Access to Public Information and Citizen Participation in Supreme Audit Institutions”, Buenos Aires, ACIJ.

IDI-INTOSAI (2013): “How to increase the use and impact of audit reports”.

DESA & INTOSAI (2011): “Effective practices of cooperation between SAIs and citizens to enhance public accountability”.

UN (2006):“Dialogue on Civil Society Engagement in Public Accountability”, Workshop Report, Manila, Philippines.

Cornejo, C. (2012): “Citizenship and Supreme Audit Institutions: Transparency, Civic Participation and Accountability”, report on the Expert´s Forum, coordinated on behalf of the TPA INITIATIVE (April 16th to 27th, 2012) in the Journal of the Ibero- American Experts’ Network Nº 9, pp. 42-47, Madrid, 1st semester.

TPA INITIATIVE – ACIJ, (2013): “Information Technologies and Public Control in Latin America. Contributions and Best Practices for the Strengthening of Supreme Audit Institution Websites”.

Castro, M., Cornejo, C. et al (2013): “Transparency, Participation and Accountability in Public Oversight: advancing Latin American SAIs agenda at the subnational level” in Supreme Audit Institutions. Accountability for development, NOMOS, INTOSAI-GIZ.

UN-INTOSAI (2011): “Audit and Advisory by SAIs: Risks and Opportunities, as well as Possibilities for Engaging Citizens”, Conclusions of the 22nd Symposium held in Vienna, March 5–7.

Van Zyl, A. (2013): “Greasing the Wheels of the Accountability System: How Civil Society Organizations close the Gap between Transparency and Accountability”, Washington D.C., International Budget Partnership.

Dassen, N. Arias, J. et al (2009): “Strengthening responsibility from public officials: building bridges between oversight agencies and civil society”.

Ramkumar, V. &Krafchik, W. (2006): “The Role of Civil Society Organizations in Auditing and Public Finance Management”, The International Budget Project.

Guillan Montero, A. (2012): “Building bridges: Advancing transparency and participation through the articulation of Supreme Audit Institutions and civil society”, Paper presented at the 2nd Transatlantic Conference on Transparency Research, Utrecht, June 7-9.

ELLA (2012): “The Latin American Approach to Improving Public Spending Oversight”.

OLACEFS – GIZ/BMZ (2012): “Citizen participation in public oversight: good practices for strengthening relationships between SAIs and citizenship”, Commission on Citizen Participation, San José.

INTOSAI (2013): “Challenges of SAIs regarding Sustainable and Efficient Ways to Communicate their Audit Findings and Recommendations”, INTOSAI Basic Paper, 22nd UN/INTOSAI Symposium, Vienna, March 5-7.