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Being honest: award-winning annual reports

• Posted on March 29, 2018 by Kate Mathers

  How do you make complex departmental annual reports easily understandable? Do you clearly outline your goals and achievement of them? Is it easy for the public to understand your organisational risks and their management? Being clear, concise, honest and open in annual reports is a real skill. To inspire creativity and usability, our yearly guide to good practice in annual reports this year presents examples from both the public sector organisations we reviewed in the Building Public Trust Awards, and some of the private and third sector examples highlighted in other categories. more… Being honest: award-winning annual reports

  Tagged: Accountability, Audit, Business operations, Cross-government, Good practice principles, Information management, Performance management, Public finances, Reporting, Third sector

  2 Comments

Dedicated to strengthening international auditing

• Posted on January 12, 2017 by David Goldsworthy

  
  After 22 years with the NAO, David Goldsworthy, Head of International Relations and Technical Co operation is retiring. David has led a team which has delivered around 100 projects in more than 50 countries over the last 17 years. He looks back over how the world of audit has changed and reveals some of his personal highlights.
   
  more… Dedicated to strengthening international auditing

  Tagged: Audit, Governance, International, Performance management, Public finances, Reporting, Standards

  4 Comments

Ensuring Government delivers: an international and 900 year viewpoint

• Posted on December 21, 2016 by Antonia Gracie

  Helping Mozambique address its huge post-war challenges … the launch of a new book on the NAO’s 900 year history … a framework to help the UK government oversee the £734 billion of taxpayers’ money spent each year. The common thread is improved Parliamentary oversight and accountability. This aim is at the heart of the NAO’s role and therefore of the new book by former Assistant Auditor General, David Dewar; it was the subject of my presentation at the Houses of Parliament to a Mozambican delegation; and it has been a key theme of my work in our cross-government team this year. more… Ensuring Government delivers: an international and 900 year viewpoint

  Tagged: Accountability, Amyas Morse, Audit, Cross-government, Good practice principles, Impacts, International, Performance management, Process management, Public finances

  4 Comments

A near miss: Managing risk overseas

• Posted on July 28, 2016 by Bob Shambler

  The tragic July events in Dhaka, with a 12-hour siege and death of 20 hostages, brought home to us the risks that accompany travel to almost any part of the world today. The attack on the Holey Artisan Café in an upmarket Dhaka suburb was one of the deadliest in Bangladesh and mostly hit overseas nationals. Horrifying to all, it was terrifying for us. The café was one of the NAO team’s favourite places to eat and a few of its members had been there just a few days before. None of us wants to contemplate the worst, but such occurrences bring home the crucial importance of risk assessment and preparation for crisis management. more… A near miss: Managing risk overseas

  Tagged: Audit, International, Risk management, Terrorism

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Think global, act local

• Posted on January 26, 2016 by David Goldsworthy

  Foreign embassy visits. Discussions with parliaments from Malaysia to Morocco. Spending weeks at the United Nations in New York. Every year NAO people spend anything from a few days to many months working overseas. Some conduct audits of international organisations; some evaluate UK spending overseas; some learn about international best practices; and others aid national audit offices and parliaments in developing countries. So how does this help the UK public sector? more… Think global, act local

  Tagged: Audit, Business operations, Cross-government, Good practice principles, International, Overseas aid

  2 Comments