Tuvalu Leads the Pacific in Finance Compliance with Support from Global Partners

Breaking News: Tuvalu Makes Strides in Financial Audit Capabilities

Funafuti, Tuvalu - In a significant milestone for the Pacific region, the Tuvalu Office of the Auditor-General has received joint support from the Pacific Association of Supreme Audit Institutions (PASAI) and the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) to enhance its financial audit capabilities in line with International Standards of Supreme Audit Institutions (ISSAIs).

A Major Breakthrough

Under the agreement, PASAI and IDI provided two weeks of in-country support to assess existing audit practices and identify areas for improvement. The facilitators used a specialized tool called iCAT-FA to analyze the 2017 and 2018 Financial Statements of Government (FSGs) audits, which led to the development of a refined and enhanced audit methodology.

Project Background

The assessment was made possible through the “Strengthening of Public Finance Management and Governance in the Pacific Project,” funded by the European Union and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme. PASAI is responsible for delivering the SAI component of the project, aiming to strengthen budget oversight capacities of parliaments and supreme audit institutions in the region.

A Commitment to Excellence

The Auditor-General of Tuvalu, Mr. Eli Lopati, welcomed the support from global partners and expressed his commitment to building audit capacity and achieving high-quality audits that comply with ISSAIs.

• “I expect this joint mission to enable me to build audit capacity in financial auditing, achieve uniformly high-quality audits, promote the value and benefits of SAIs, complete audits in a timely manner, and contribute to governments’ informed policy decisions.”
• — Mr. Eli Lopati, Auditor-General of Tuvalu

A Model for Other Pacific Countries

Tuvalu’s adoption of ISSAIs as authoritative auditing standards is seen as a significant step towards compliance with international best practices. The experience gained from this program will inform the approach for similar initiatives in other Pacific countries, including:

• Fiji
• Kiribati
• Papua New Guinea
• Samoa
• Solomon Islands
• Tonga
• Vanuatu

Evaluating Success

The success of this project will be evaluated through a quality assurance peer review conducted by participating SAIs, which will assess whether the learnings from the workshop have been applied to the FSG audit and achieved its objectives.