Tbilisi, February 5, 2015 – The World Bank and the State Audit Office (SAO) have signed today a Grant Agreement on a US$ 0.5million project - IT Audit Development in the State Audit Office of Georgia. The agreement was signed by the World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus, Henry Kerali, and the General Auditor of the State Audit Office of Georgia, Lasha Tordia.
The main development objective of the project is to introduce and develop the IT audit direction based on the international audit standards in the State Audit Office of Georgia. This will enhance SAO’s audit capacity to respond to the fast paced transition to e-governance.
The Project includes three components: Development of IT audit Information System at SAO; Capacity Development of SAO IT Audit Staff and Project Management.
“The State Audit Office has shown a strong commitment to strengthening and developing its operations as the key oversight body in Georgia. Successive development strategies of late focused on professional capacity building, institutional development, strengthening the corporate image and external communication,” said Henry Kerali, World Bank Regional Director for the South Caucasus. “The project will support the SAO auditors and specialists to apply modern and consistent IT audit approach in their work.”
“The State Audit Office acknowledges the responsibility in the process of supporting the transparent and effective management of electronic systems in the public sector. The new audit system will ensure identification of risks and issuing respective recommendations regarding security, data integrity and frauds in government information systems. Ultimately, SAO’s audit work will contribute to the efficiency and reliability of the government information systems, which leads to the effective and uninterrupted service delivery to the society. The support of the World Bank is very important in order to develop the IT audit,” said Lasha Tordia, General Auditor, State Audit Office of Georgia. “The project will support organization capacity of IT audit, which includes creation of the world standard IT infrastructure in the organization, as well as facilitating growth of professional opportunities in the upcoming three years.”
Implementation and development of IT audit will improve the performance of the SAO by increasing scope of audit, increasing quality of audit report, increasing effectiveness in resource allocation and efficiency in reaching the audit objectives. All of these results will contribute to a higher impact of audit work and consequently, improved public financial management.
SAO will be the implementing agency of the project. The Auditor General will be responsible for overall management of the grant, including monitoring implementation progress, supervising the work of the consultants, and ensuring regular reporting to the World Bank on progress towards achievement of development objectives.
