South and South-East Asia - Bhutan
Cowater worked with the Royal Audit Authority (RAA) of Bhutan, the country’s Supreme Audit Institution, to draft new audit legislation. At the time of the project, while the RAA had already existed for many years, it had done so under Royal decrees. There was no audit act in place to establish the roles, responsibilities and independence of the RAA, and the RAA did not have established procedures for reporting to the National Assembly or to the public. The UNDP provided funding to draft a Royal Audit Authority Act, and to carry out a detailed capacity assessment of the Authority. Cowater conducted a review of the Royal decrees in place; interviewed and conducted workshops with stakeholders, and reviewed of the mandates of numerous other SAIs. The project ultimately produced a draft Royal Audit Authority Act for Bhutan as well as a detailed Strategic Plan for future development of the RAA.
