Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

Part 4
Overall organization and documentation of the audit process
Contract
Before starting any preparations contract should be made, where the following items must be
specified:
• Responsibilities of the parties,
• Scope of the audit and results of the audit;
• Date of the audit (detailed schedule might be created later);
• Possibility for the auditors to access the necessary documents;
• Confidentiality requirements.
A contract should be made between the audit contractor and the audit group.
Audit objectives, scope
Audit objectives (what should be achieved) and scope (auditing of all subdivisions, some of the
subdivisions, all activities, or some specific activities) should be clearly specified in the contract or
some additional document.
Representative
The audited local administration shall appoint the person responsible for facilitating auditing
process: arrange meetings; provide the working place for the auditors etc.
Schedule
Detailed schedule of all activities should be prepared before starting the audit. Detailed schedule
should include:
• List of all audit activities
• Duration of all audit activities
• Responsible persons for all audit activities from both sides
• Precision of the schedule should be in days, and for the interview stage – in hours.
Questionnaires
According to the schedule questionnaires are distributed and collected by the audit group.
Questionnaires should be distributed for the employees 1-2 weeks before starting interviews.
Backing of the top management through a memo or written order is considered important, because
otherwise it could be perceived by the personnel as unimportant activity and answers might not be
collected on time.
Information of involved personnel
All employees involved in the audit (interviewees) should be informed by the municipality
representative about the audit, its objectives and the schedule. Written memo or order by the head
of administration might be important stating the compulsory character of participation of all
employees on specified time.
Interviews
Prior to interviews in every subdivision it is recommended to make a brief meeting with all
employees, where the auditors would introduce themselves, schedule of the interviews and audit
objectives (10 to 15 minutes).
Processing of collected information
After the interview stage collected information is analysed and corrected if necessary. Therefore
the audit plan should foresee dates, when the auditors will go back to the audited subdivisions to
clarify any issues left out or missed during the interviews.
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