An independent and professional Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) is an important actor in a country’s accountability chain. It is a government entity whose external audit role is established by the constitution or supreme law-making body.

SAIs are traditionally known for their oversight of public expenditure, which remains a core part of the audit portfolio.  SAIs undertake:

• financial audits to assess the reliability and accuracy of public entities’ financial reporting and,
• compliance audits to assess a public entities’ compliance with its governing authorities.

But the role of SAIs is evolving, as they are increasingly taking a broader, more comprehensive view on reliability, effectiveness, efficiency and economy of policies and programmes. 

SAIs have untapped potential to go beyond their traditional oversight role and contribute evidence for more informed policy-making.

OECD AUDITORS ALLIANCE

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SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE

This report maps the activities of ten leading Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) in Brazil, Canada, Chile, France, Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, South Africa and the United States. In particular, it looks at how these SAIs assess key stages of the policy cycle as well as resulting policies and programmes. 

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OECD REVIEWS OF COUNTRY SAIS

• Facilitating the Implementation of the Mexican Supreme Audit Institution’s Mandate
• Progress Report on the Implementation of the Mexican Superior Audit of the Federation’s Mandate
• Auditing Decentralised Policies in Brazil:
  Collaborative and Evidence-Based Approaches for Better Outcomes
• Chile’s Supreme Audit Institution: Enhancing Strategic Agility and Public Trust
• Brazil’s Supreme Audit Institution: The Audit of the Consolidated Year-end Government Report
• Brazil's Federal Court of Accounts: Insight and Foresight for Better Governance
• Mexico's National Auditing System 
• Enhancing the Oversight Impact of Chile’s Supreme Audit Institution
• Preventive and Concomitant Control at Colombia's Supreme Audit Institution

MORE OECD REPORTS ON SAIS and EFFECTIVE INSTITUTIONS

• Using Risk Assessment in Multi-year Performance Audit Planning 
• Good Practices in Supporting Supreme Audit Institutions
• SIGMA Public financial management, public procurement and external audit
• Supreme Audit Institutions and Citizen Engagement: A Stocktake

OECD RELATED WORK

• Public Sector Internal Control, Risk Management and Audit
• Internal Control Processes
• Internal Audit
• Risk Management to Safeguard Integrity
• Public Sector Integrity