The outbreak of the global coronavirus pandemic has demanded an extraordinary response by governments around the world. This fight against the biggest health threat of our time requires every parliament, organisation, company and individual to respond quickly to this challenge. It cannot be business as usual. The same applies to national audit offices.
Emergency procurement sits at the heart of the government’s reaction to the pandemic and is particularly prone to exploitation. The same goes for. The easing or refocusing of controls and the streamlining of processes and procedures to respond to the crisis may unintentionally expose the government to the risk of rampant misuse and abuse of public resources.
Commentators across the world, political and economic, are reminding governments that transparency and accountability cannot take a backseat in this Covid-19 crisis, especially when they increase the level of expenditure under abnormal conditions.Providing guidance on procurement strategies in the crisis;Instituting relevant preventive and deterrent controls;An important principle is that internal controls should be reoriented to the context of the crisis, but not diluted.
The assistance typically comes in a quick-response mode, ranging from advice on preventive and deterrent controls that can ensure that allocated funding and resources reach the intended targets during the crisis to providing close to real-time feedback on the success of these efforts.
Many of these activities will be carried out in a system that already contains internal control weaknesses especially in the area of procurement, as evidenced in the auditor-general reports over the last number of years. This heightens the risks or misappropriation to the government.
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