LA CONTRALORIA
GENERAL DE LA
REPUBLICA DE CHILE
Elevando la agilidad estratégica y la confianza
al interior del estado
An OECD Public Integrity Review
Mario Marcel, Director Adjunto
Gobernanza Pública y Desarrollo Territorial, OECD
Santiago de Chile, 10 diciembre, 2013
Contents of the presentation
 Leveraging strategic agility and trust within government
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The OECD and examples of work
The context of the review
The findings of the review
Preliminary recommendations
Introduction to OECD
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The OECD
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Space for international governmental co-operation since establishment in 1961
• 34 member countries, over 2500 staff based in the Secretariat, over 250 publications
per year
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Work on governance
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Policy dialogue through networks of policymakers (Public Governance Committee);
Data (Government at a Glance 2013); Analytical work (OECD agenda on trust);
specialized networks and reviews (Integrity); International Standards (ethics,
whistleblowing, public procurement); Country in-depth studies (Public Governance
Reviews in 12 countries since 2010), partnerships with international organisations
and networs
• Current undertaking - “Supreme Audit Institutions and Good Governance”- led by
Brazil with 12 peer SAIs: Canada, Chile, the European Court of Auditors, France,
Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, South Africa, South Korea, United
States of America
• ‘Citizen’s Engagement and Supreme Audit Institutions’ under the Development Cooperation Directorate
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Collaboration with international bodies
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INTOSAI; developing key national indicators of social and economic development
strategy and societal progress and on a Performance Measurement Framework
• INCOSAI observer
Introduction to the Review
• The review aimed to
• Provide guidance to the CGR on how they can support good
governance through their audit work
• Contribute to the discourse on trends in SAI work
• To provide guidance for all SAIs
• The importance of the review
• The post-crisis environment shows a decline of trust in
government and the need for the strategic agility to respond to
new challenges
• The environment provides opportunities and pressures for SAIs
to demonstrate relevance and impact
• Opportunity for SAIs to help restore public trust in government
by strengthening the link between their work and whole-ofgovernment issues
The Review methodology
•
The review involved a specific methodology / approach
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Over 1 year of research and stakeholder engagement
New research: 13 peer surveys with 60+ questions on SAIs’ mandates, practices and procedures
to benchmark those of the CGR
Existing literature:
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The review relied on the support of many
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OECD surveys, databases and publications, including “Recommendations on Regulatory Policy and
Governance” and “Best Practices on Budget Transparency”
International guidelines including INTOSAI’s “Guidance for Good Governance” and ISSAI’s “Principles
for Transparency and Accountability” among others
Close collaboration with officials of the CGR and support from the Government of Chile
Senior officials from SAIs in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Costa Rica, Denmark, the European Court
of Auditors , Israel, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Portugal, South Africa and Spain.
Representatives from Chile’s Legislature, the Judiciary, civil society, media, business and
academia
The product
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Report featuring context, assessment, recommendations
32 boxes, mostly with examples of good practice, 51 recommendations
Final version in Spanish in February
Dissemination across member countries, OECD networks, available to general public
Context and approach of the review
• Chile is an emerging country that is undergoing a process of
deep change
• The mandates, functions, organization and delivery methods
of the public sector are changing accordingly
• Two key challenges:
• Strategic agility
• Build trust
• Change in the public sector and society creates new risks and
challenges for the audit function
• Emerging risks: outsourcing, asset management
• Challenges: managing change and flexibility, empowered citizens
• A necessary response: provide insights and foresights of
emerging risks and good practice
Change in the Chilean public sector
• From the early 1990s:
• Larger public sector in terms of spending and employment
• Stronger democratic institutions: active role of congress, elected officials at
municipal and regional level, regulation of political financing
• New government functions: environment, gender equity, manage trade and tax
treaties, long-term care, international money laundering
• More diverse public sector: subnational institutions, public services, autonomous
bodies
• Leveraged public sector: substantial functions decentralized, outsourced or under
long-term service contracts (PPPs)
• Rule-based fiscal policy, active ALM operations, fiscal statistics
• Massive introduction of ICTs into government: transactions with citizens,
connectivity, databases, shared services
• Diversification of public service, new categories and rules; conflict, negotiations,
agreements
• Transparency and access to information: reduction of reserved expenses,
transparency requirements on public officials, publication of data, access to
information, documents
And many more to come
• Emerging challenges for the public sector:
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Demographic transition
Gender equity
Urban development
Further decentralisation
Rights-based policies
International regulatory cooperation
Further openess standards and practice
Regulation of conflicts of interest
The essential barometer: trust in
institutions
Preview: areas of analysis and findings
Areas of Analysis
Findings
Overview of the CGR
Work of CGR is underlined by its high level of organisational and
administrative independence, respect and positive reputation
Role in supporting strategic
agility and trust in government
CGR undertakes some functions that fall under the Executive in peer
countries, balance , focus and use of current undertakings needs to adjust to
evolution of public management and value-for-money
Fostering strategic agility in the
CGR
Issued first Code of Conduct in July 2013, but does not have multi-year
workforce planning or a human resources competencies framework as most
peer SAIs do
Stakeholder Engagement
In the past 6 years CGR has undertaken a number of initiatives to improve
engagement with stakeholders, but engagement is still limited with some key
actors, like the Legislature
Processes for prioritising
assignments and ensuring
quality of work
CGR’s audit planning is underlined by a prioritisation process, including a
matrix of relative importance and risk indicators for audit engagements
Several units have been established by the Comptroller general to ensure
quality control
Enhancing transparency and
performance
CGR has been active in ensuring quality and a leader in integrating
transparency in its work; practices are largely in line with INTOSAI
“Principles for Transparency and Accountability”
CGR is seeking to enhance its own performance framework and to develop a
general framework for evaluation with peer SAIs
Preliminary recommendations
• Reassess current products, and introduce new ones that are linked to
whole-of-government issues, to support the government in addressing
new challenges
• Integrating the automation of the CGR’s ex ante audit assignments with government
management ICT systems
• Further utilising exemptions to the CGR’s ex ante audit assignments to incentivise
sustained improvement in management and internal control in public entities
• Proactively support efforts to consolidate an independent, capable and efficient
system of internal control in the Chilean public sector
• Reallocating capacity to undertake ex post audits of decision-making systems,
regulatory management practices and internal control in individual entities and
across government.
• Auditing the reliability of annual financial statements of public entities, linking the
process to the annual budget cycle
• Auditing the reliability of non-financial performance information together with the
audit of annual financial statements
• Auditing whole-of-government issues that are key for the government to become
more strategically agile
• Deliver value-added products, presenting findings from ex post audit work in new
ways to further engage those changed with governance
Preliminary recommendations
• Enhancing strategic agility within the CGR will help to ensure it has the
capacity to provide these foresights and insights
• Foster strategic sensitivity of emerging trends and risks affecting public governance
and changing societal expectations as input into the CGR’s strategic planning and
institutional modernisation
• introduce multi-year workforce planning to consolidate recent workforce
restructuring d align workforce skills and competencies with current and future
needs of the institution
• Use competency management to align human resource management to support the
institution’s goals and enhance responsiveness to changes within the public
administration
• Utilise traditional human resource management practices (e.g. recruitment, training
and promotion) to support the development of competencies and encourage
internal horizontal co-operation
• Align performance assessment at all levels within the institution to the goals
contained in the strategic and human resource plans ; ensure greater consistency
between recruitment, development and rewards.
Preliminary recommendations
• Leverage stakeholder engagement to increase and demonstrate the role of
the CGR in supporting good governance
• Enhance engagement with auditees in order to develop a constructive working
relationship
• Enhance co-ordination and co-operation with internal audit in order to support
effective and efficient audit work
• Broadening the communication strategy to define audiences and how they access
information on audit activities and findings
• Focusing specific attention to the Congress, its commissions as well as
• the country’s municipal councils
• Exploring measures to overcome barriers and constraints facing core stakeholders’
understanding and access to information
• Consult and facilitate participation with stakeholders other than auditees and
internal audit, including by consulting stakeholders throughout the audit cycle,
including the design of audit criteria and the evaluation of audit reports and –
engaging key executive authorities in discussions about the main challenges facing
good public governance.
Preliminary recommendations
• Strengthening processes to prioritise assignments
and consolidating existing quality control systems
can help to ensure relevance and quality
• Further enhance impact through ongoing
transparency and performance measurement
initiatives
Conclusions
• The CGR has an indisputable reputation for its institutional
independence and leadership in transparency
• This review is a tool that highlights CGR’s unprecedented
opportunity to support government in addressing new
challenges by
• Building on its “reform from within” and current initiatives
• Continuing to invest in high value-added products
• Continuing to engage strategically with auditees and non-auditees
• This is the second integrity review of an SAI this year- a useful
tool for other SAIs to benchmark their work
• Encourage all SAIs to continue assessing their role and
potential impact in supporting good governance