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Improving accountability through performance audit – experiences from Brazil
From 1998 to 2006 DFID funded two technical assistance projects to support the Brazilian Court of Audit (Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU)). The main focus was to use enhanced audit approaches to reduce social inequalities. The TCU has evaluated nearly 60 programmes on themes such as Assisting Disabled People and Basic Sanitation.
The TCU considers three main types of equity issue:
- equality of geographical distribution of resources
- equality of access to goods and services by individuals or user groups, and
- equality of results achieved by the programmes.
The TCU recognises the importance of getting stakeholders to take up and act on the findings of its audit work. Key elements in the TCU’s approach which encourage this are:
- Inclusiveness - TCU’s audit approach involves a range of stakeholders including civil society representatives and service users in the design phase of audits.
- Positive messages – TCU produces reports that disseminate good practices and lessons learned rather than simply criticising performance. Audited bodies have come to see it as an ally in improving their performance.
- Accessibility – TCU fully recognises the importance of making its message available to a range of stakeholders in order to build demand for improvement. It produces reports and summaries targeted at a range of audiences and also uses events such as seminars and conferences to disseminate key messages.
- Monitoring and follow up – the TCU has developed a systematic approach to following up its recommendations, ensuring that action plans are developed by audited bodies and checking on their implementation after six and twelve months.
For more information, contact Julie Lynn.