146 – 4 – SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS’ INPUT INTO POLICY EVALUATION AND OVERSIGHT Box 4.5. The SAI of the Netherlands – auditing for accountability and inclusivity (continued) Good practices used
The audit gave new insight to the parliament about the extent to which government fulfilled their obligations in the area of evaluation. In time of strict budgets, money must be spent wisely and the evaluation of effectiveness of policy is a necessary tool.
The audit was combined with workshops and advice to ministries on how to strengthen their evaluation practice.
Lessons learned The Court learned that there may be good reasons not to evaluate policies. In the first audit, the Court did not explore this issue, which raised some questions by the ministries. The followup audit included justifications on why a policy had not been previously evaluated. .
Further reading 2012 Audit: www.courtofaudit.nl/english/Publications/Audits/Introductions/2012/05/Evaluati on_of_policy_effectiveness_in_central_government. The 2013 Follow up: www.courtofaudit.nl/english/Publications/Audits/Introductions/2013/06 /Evaluation_of_Policy_Effectiveness_in_Central_Government_Follow_up_audit. Sources: OECD Survey of Peer Supreme Audit Institutions; further reading links above.
Box 4.6. The SAI of South Africa - auditing for accountability and inclusivity The reduction of adult illiteracy is a worldwide objective of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). Their Education for All (EFA) movement is a global commitment to provide quality basic education for all children, youth and adults. At the World Education Forum (Dakar, 2000), 164 governments pledged to achieve EFA and identified six goals to be met by 2015. Goal four specifically relates to illiteracy, and is as follows: “We hereby collectively commit ourselves to the attainment of achieving a 50% improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women, and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults.” The main objective of South Africa’s Kha Ri Gude campaign is to enable 4.7 million functionally illiterate and semi-literate adults, including people with disabilities, to become literate and numerate in one of the 11 official languages by 2015. This is intended to reduce the national rate of illiteracy by 50% by 2015, in line with the government’s EFA commitment made in Dakar in 2000. Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction, women empowerment, HIV and AIDS eradication, environmental protection, and sustainable democratisation and peace building should also be achieved. A substantial ZAR 2.5 billion (South African rand) had been invested in the campaign by 2012, however, only 2.2 million (47%) of the targeted 4.7 million unschooled adults had completed or passed the tests relating to campaign. Although the average pass rate is 99%, considering the backlog and the average dropout rate of 18%, the planned completion target will only be reached in 2018.
Type Performance audit.
Objective ASGA’s audit set out to answer the following question: Was the Kha Ri Gude campaign economically, efficiently and effectively implemented to ensure the reduction of adult illiteracy in South Africa? SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS AND GOOD GOVERNANCE: OVERSIGHT, INSIGHT AND FORESIGHT © OECD 2016
