The Assistant Controller and Auditor General (ACAG), Vaofusi Terence Su’a joined in the educational program implemented by the Graduate School by the Government of United States of America (USA Graduate School) together with the Audit Office of American Samoa, on January 24 - 26, 2023.
According to the program of this training, the three days were divided into the following subjects:
- Assessment of internal security in departments for government employees (Assessing Controls for Government Employees);
- Assessment of internal security for special audits for projects (Assessing Controls in Performance Audits); and
- Ethical Decision-Making for Government Employees
The main goal of this training is to develop and improve the audit service in the Government, along with expanding the understanding of the work of the Audit Office so that it is easy to implement and work together with the staff of the Government.
It's been a while since a member of the Audit Office of the Government of Samoa participated in a training for the same region because of the Covid-19 disease. Many issues and challenges were observed that are similar between the Audit Office in American Samoa and our Audit Office. They shared and discussed ways to facilitate the implementation of the service, especially an understanding of the government staff.
Key areas discussed include:
- The importance of internal controls in government departments
- Planning for the testing of these internal defenses (planning);
- The writing of special reports on matters obtained from the audit (audit report)
- Maintain good records from written tests (documentation)
The participation of the Audit Office of Samoa in this training is very important, to expand the skills and competence in the management and effective performance of project audits (performance audit). This golden opportunity was to communicate and exchange ideas, skills, methods and practices in accordance with international policies and guidelines. The important lessons learned from this training, will manage the responsibilities to encourage changes in the Audit Offices in order to increase and improve the audit service.