Articles Logan Wamsley Jun 15, 2023
The U.S. government’s Oversight.gov website compiles reports from federal, state, and local governments — including internal audit reports. It can be both an authoritative source for internal audit reports and a knowledge-sharing platform for government auditors.
One of the core tenets that separates public sector organizations from their private sector counterparts is a legal commitment to public transparency — a commitment that, by extension, must be held by their internal audit functions. This is a characteristic more often associated with external audit functions than internal audit, but to the public sector auditor, it is no less vital.
“Internal auditors work to provide management with information about their operations and compliance, so it isn't necessarily obvious that internal audit reports would be public facing like external audit reports are,” says Pam Stroebel Powers, director, professional guidance, public sector at The IIA. “But public sector auditors must keep the public interest in mind when auditing, which may lend itself to more transparency.”
Such transparency comes with some inherent benefits. For example, audit report transparency enables public sector auditors to share ideas, establish benchmarks, and learn new skills and competencies, in conformance with IIA Standard 1230: Continuing Professional Development. However, it also adds organizational risk of increased accountability, damage to public perception in the case of lackluster findings, and legal risk should transparency initiatives be insufficient.
Traditionally, to meet the transparency threshold mandated by applicable local, state, and federal laws, public sector organizations have published audit reports on their own websites and shared reports through their communication channels such as social media. While these strategies meet legal standards, they often are not sufficient to take advantage of the many benefits transparency can provide. Platforms such as Oversight.gov in the U.S. are looking to expand access to public reports, which provides several new and exciting opportunities for internal audit.
Originally created by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, Oversight.gov consolidates all public reports from the federal inspectors general (IGs) in one place, improving the public’s access to independent and authoritative information about the federal government. As the platform has grown, it has added state and local reports. Since its debut in 2019, agencies have uploaded 25,802 reports, over 13,000 of which are audit reports. Additional documents include inspections/evaluations, investigations, reviews, and disaster recovery reports. Users can search for these reports by region as well as by subject matter, which makes finding relevant information quick and seamless.
“It really helps with getting greater exposure for your audit reports,” says Brian Gallagher, IT program manager at the National Science Foundation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). “It’s not just something that helps our reports to be seen by the public, but it’s also a one-stop-shop website for us to inform stakeholders like Congress.” In fact, Gallagher’s team now uses Oversight.gov as the platform for their own site, so it only takes a one upload to publish both sites simultaneously.
While Oversight.gov grants audit reports additional exposure, the real value for internal auditors is its ability for audit functions to share knowledge. To date, external auditors have benefitted the most from this tool, but as upload participation continues to expand, internal audit functions will see just as much value.
“If I’m going to start an audit, I want to be able to find out how my peers have tackled it,” Gallagher says. Looking at OIG reports or local or state reports can help internal auditors understand and overcome the challenges they are currently facing. “For future planning, one could look into something that was beyond their own scope,” he explains. “It’s a way to start conversations that otherwise would have been missing.”
Because uploading reports is voluntary for public sector entities, it may take time to fully realize the benefits of Oversight.gov — full buy-in from audit functions across the U.S. has not been universally achieved. But, as Gallagher notes, all that is needed to grow the base is exposure to the platform and education on what it can provide.
Some early uploaders have even used the platform to promote their commitment to the public good. For example, Delaware’s former state auditor boasted that the agency was the most transparent state agency on Oversight.gov based on the number of reports it was producing, Gallagher says.
“Audit functions are wearing their participation like a badge of honor,” he says. “They take pride in knowing their participation helps spur others to share their own knowledge, whether on Oversight.gov or on their own social media.”
Whether Oversight.gov fits into a public sector internal audit function’s plan for increased transparency is something only they can answer, but in a sector where the public good is the ultimate objective, more transparency is better than less. With this in mind, audit functions should at least consider using a platform like Oversight.gov.