South and South-East Asia - Nepal
Through this USD 1.7 million, World Bank-funded project, Cowater worked with the Office of the Auditor General of Nepal (OAGN) between 2012-2014 on enhancing the quality and impact of public sector audit in Nepal. This project operated as part of the Government of Nepal’s Public Financial Management Reform Program Strategy. The long-term benefits of this project were improved financial management and accountability as well as increased credibility and public trust in the OAGN. More directly, this project helped modernize OAGN’s financial audit methodologies, including aligning them with ISSAIs and standardizing their audit-working paper templates; deepen the OAGN’s knowledge of performance audit; and enhanced the impact of audits by developing a closer relationship between the Office of the Auditor General of Nepal and the Public Accounts Committee, who is responsible for overseeing the work of the Auditor General’s Office. Project activities included providing technical advice, based on stakeholder analysis, in the preparation of the annual audit plan; guiding pilot financial audits; supporting Quality Assurance arrangements in the OAGN; introducing the use of computer audit technologies, specifically Cowater’s public sector audit software, Audit360, known locally as the Nepal Audit Management System; and upgrading OAGN’s staff capacity to undertake performance audits.
