13th Annual Audit Conference 22 July, 2010 - In a departure from current practice auditors will now focus only on specific areas, instead of checking on large volumes of transactions and account balances.

The idea is to properly utilise scarce audit resources and, at the same time, help organisations achieve their objectives.

This risk based audit methodology will require an auditor to first understand the organisation, identify and analyse the risks that may hinder the achievements of the organisation’s goals, and then audit the high risk areas.

“The approach is a solution to the ever-increasing number of agencies requiring auditors to audit at least once in two years, if not annually,” said the auditor general Ugyen Chhewang at the opening of the 13th annual audit conference yesterday in Thimphu. “The risk-based approach will reduce auditor’s time and other resources in areas which have minimal risk.”

The risk-based approach concept was initiated in 2006, but it could not be implemented because of a lack of expertise, auditors said. “At the end of this conference, we hope to chart out the plans to implement it,” the auditor general said.

RAA’s media focal person told Kuensel that RAA would adopt the strategies of the risk-based auditing phase wise. RAA has already taken some initiatives to address risk-based auditing, like focusing on the risk profiling, development of auditing standards, and training on risk-based financial audit.

“In this conference, we’ll review those initiatives and also adopt new strategies like formation of core groups, trainings by external and internal experts and implementation of international best practices in auditing,” he said.

RAA conducted 643 audits against 653 audits planned for the financial year 2009-10, and recovered about Nu 66.866M. During this period, RAA issued 11,664 audit clearance certificates.

Addressing the conference yesterday, the works and human settlement minister, Lyonpo Yeshi Zimba, told auditors that they have an important role to strengthen good governance and help curb corruption.

He also said that foreign direct investment should be allowed in auditing, which would promote capacity building among auditors and help the country grow socially and economically.

About 170 audit officials were present yesterday for the three-day audit conference, where the financial audit manual and the auditor general’s standing instruction were also launched.