The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 2011 1

Wojciech Misiąg, Ph. D.Supreme Audit Office (NIK) - PolandAdviser to the President

Preparation of Draft Methodologyon the KNI selection for the use in SAIs activity

Goal of the presentation

To propose a concise set of recommendations answering the question:

How to select the KNI for use in SAIs’ activities?

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 20112

Starting point

KNI in the Polish Supreme Audit Office

1. In general, the Supreme Audit Office did not compose its own set of indicators to evaluate the audited activities of the Government

2. When auditing the strategic government’s program with the performance indicators set by the Government, the Supreme Audit Office should audit and evaluate the achieved values of these indicators

3. When evaluating the execution of the state budget, the SupremeAudit Office examines the macroeconomic indicators and, on that basis, evaluates the Government’s activity concerning the state budget

Source: presentation on the OECD World Forum, Busan 2009

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 20113

General rules

1. The set of KNI for the use in SAI’s activity should be

adjusted to the:– socio-economic situation of the country;– SAI’s mandate;– kind of SAI’s activity, where the KNI are

using.

2. Each of KNI in use should match the SMART* criteria.

3. If possible, SAI should use the KNI designed, calculated

and published by the external institutions, and not to produce its own indicators

* SMART = Specific + Measurable + Attainable + Relevant + Specific + Time-bond

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 20114

Kinds of SAIs’ activities…

… where the KNI can be useful:

Risk analysis and audit planning

Macroeconomic assessment of national economy

Audit of strategic programs

Other audit activities (?)

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 20115

KNI in risk analysis and audit planning

For internal purposes, such as risk analysis or auditplanning, SAIs can use any „good” set of KNI

The set of KNI for internal purposes should cover all

matters subject to SAI’S audit

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 20116

Is the definition of a „good set of KNI” needed?

KNI in macroeconomic assessment

If SAI is authorised or obliged to present a macroeconomic assesment of the government’s policy, SAI should determine the set of KNI for this purpose

If possible, SAI should use the KNI designed and calculated

outside SAI

The set of KNI used for macroeconomic assesment should

be as stable as possible

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 20117

KNI in the audit of strategic programs

The KNI being the performance measures for themulti-year strategic programs carried out by the government, should be treated as the audit

determinants

Other KNI (in general – other performance indicators)

should be treated as the auxiliary tools

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 20118

KNI in other audit activities

???

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 20119

Additional recommendations

If the government has prepared its own set of KNI, and publishes the values of KNI, SAI should audit the

information systems generated the values of these KNI

SAIs should avoid the KNI similar to the indicators usedin data published by the international organizations

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 201110

Thank you for your attention

The 4th Meeting of the INTOSAI Working Group on Key National Indicators,, Helsinki, 13 April 201111