Between November 21 and 23, the Brazilian Federal Court of Accounts (TCU) took part in the 20th meeting of the Compliance Audit Subcommittee (CAS) of the International Organization of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI), held in Budapest, Hungary. The meeting, led by SAI India, was also attended by teams from SAIs France and Norway, and countries that have representatives on the subcommittee.   

The event is part of the developing of the concept paper on "Compliance Auditing for Inclusion and Equality", which is to be drawn up by a working group that the TCU is part of due to its participation in the Equal Futures Audit Changemakers initiative of the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI).  

With the support of the Department of External Control for Sustainable Development (SecexDesenvolvimento) TCU was represented by auditors Rosana de Oliveira Machado Aragão and Patrícia Yuri Kochi. The auditors were appointed to take part on the working group designated to produce a concept paper. 

The TCU team presented the topic "Equality and inclusion: the experience of SAI Brazil" and covered, for example, concepts of equity, equality and inclusion, the history of the Court's work and the cross-cutting control strategy in equity and human rights policies, challenges and risks identified with regard to the implementation of the strategy and mitigating measures. 

After the presentation, the participants highlighted the work carried out by TCU on the theme of fairness, equality, and inclusion, and considered it to be the most developed SAI in relation to the others on this theme. 

Compliance audit

The event also dealt with issues such as property and regularity compliance audits, building criteria based on social norms and traditions in compliance audits, agile audits, and quality control systems. 

Regarding the discussions on the concept paper currently being drafted, all SAIs represented at the meeting were encouraged to comment on the project and the various technical aspects, including the methodology. At the time, it was emphasized that the importance of this document is related to its ability to draw the attention of SAIs around the world to the need to consider equity in compliance audits. 

Although the fairness dimension is primarily affected by performance audits, in the view of CAS/INTOSAI, fairness can and should be contemplated in compliance audits in various ways. 

The concept paper is due to be concluded in the second half of 2024, bringing together the concepts of equality and inclusion, the significance of conducting compliance audits in these areas. The paper also details the entry points and potential scopes for conducting equality and inclusion compliance audits and case studies or examples of work carried out by different SAIs, with the aim of helping audit institutions contribute to inclusion and equality through high-quality, high-impact compliance audits.