Audit plan of the National Audit Office for the period 2021–2025
The National Audit Office’s audit and monitoring operations are based on the audit plan. The plan includes performance targets for 2021, as well as resource calculations and a plan on the allocation of resources during the operational and financial period 2021−2025. The audit plan also serves as the operational and financial plan referred to in budget legislation.
Operating environment and resources
The audit and monitoring work of the National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF) focuses on topics and themes that are significant for central government finances and society, and on material risks related to central government finances.
The audit work of the National Audit Office is centred around four subject areas. Some of the audit themes or perspectives extend to several subject areas.
Audit operations: Sustainable General Government Finances
One of the key duties of the National Audit Office is to provide information for the planning and management of general and central government finances. The audit themes include fiscal policy and its preparation, as well as the management of central government assets, liabilities, investments, and financial risks.
Audit operations: Sustainable Governance and Public Administration
One of the focus areas defined in the strategy of the National Audit Office is provision of information to support the development of public administration, to strengthen the link between sustainable development and the management of central government finances, and to ensure the quality of legislation. Information is needed to support the ongoing reforms of public administration, the targeted more uniform and efficient public administration, as well as the increasingly popular experimental culture and structural reforms.
The Information Governance area covers issues related to the common information flows in the management of central government finances, the reliability of central government data, the development of the cost-effectiveness of production, the improvement of State Group information, the management of central government risks, internal control, and compliance with the budget.
Monitoring and oversight operations: Fiscal policy monitoring
The ultimate goal of fiscal policy monitoring is to ensure that the fiscal policy and its preparation promote the sustainability of general government finances. The monitoring verifies the setting of fiscal policy targets and assesses compliance with rules and achievement of the targets. It also verifies the reliability of the forecasts on which the fiscal policy is built. Another goal is to promote transparent rules that are easy to understand.
Monitoring and oversight operations: Oversight of the legality of election and political party funding
As a politically independent actor, the National Audit Office is a credible and fair oversight authority in issues concerning election campaign and political party funding. The oversight operations can detect and prevent funding in violation of the Act on Political Parties or the Act on a Candidate’s Election Funding, and thus influence the legality of election and political party funding. The oversight enables improper funding to be detected.
International cooperation has an important role in the development of external audit and monitoring. From international operations, the National Audit Office seeks inputs and tools for promoting a sustainable reform of general government finances and public administration.
The HR policy specifies the National Audit Office’s vision and ambition for human resource management and development. It provides the foundation for systematic and long-term human resource management. The personnel policy is based on the NAOF’s values. It determines the principles for the management of HR issues and sets out the NAOF’s operating principles for HR management. The HR policy supports and provides instructions for the implementation of the NAOF’s strategy.
The National Audit Office of Finland has overhauled its strategy and management system. The changes aim at a wider societal impact. Achieving this requires diverse competence development. Accordingly, competence development is one of the focus areas of the strategy period. Through competence development, we aim at obtaining abilities to do things in a new way and thereby create a new kind of organizational culture according to our strategy.
