The Performance Audit Subcommittee (PAS) was founded by the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institution´s (INTOSAI) Professional Standards Committee (PSC) in September 2005, and the establishment of the Subcommittee was approved by the INTOSAI Governing Board at their 54th meeting, 10-11 November 2005. As stated in the revised Terms of Reference (2018), the mandate of the subcommittee is:

  • to disseminate the INTOSAI Implementation Guidelines for Performance Auditing.
  • to develop standards and guidelines for performance auditing based on the current INTOSAI Implementation Guidelines for Performance Auditing.
  • to monitor the development and reforms of the public sector and continuously assess the consequences for performance auditing.
  • to monitor the development of relevant theories, methods, evaluations, etc. at universities and research centres and continuously assess the consequences for performance auditing.
  • to identify needs among Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) for additional guidance.

The INTOSAI Performance Audit Subcommittee has 29 members (September 2021): Ireland (Chair); Australia; Austria; Azerbaijan; Brazil; Canada; Denmark; European Court of Auditors (ECA); France; Georgia; Germany; Guyana; Hungary; India; Iran; Kiribati; the Netherlands; Norway; Peru; Qatar; Romania; Russian Federation; Saudi Arabia; South Africa; Sweden; Thailand; Tunisia; United Kingdom; United States of America.

Observers are: the African Organisation of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E); the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA); the INTOSAI Development Initiative (IDI) and the Working Group on Evaluation of Public Policies and Programmes (WGEPPP).

The PAS holds annual meetings, in different member countries each year. The 12th annual meeting was in Johannesburg 9-10 April 2019, hosted by the Auditor-General of South Africa. The 13th PAS meeting was scheduled for 31 March and 1 April 2020 in Tbilisi, to be hosted by the State Audit Office of Georgia. Due to the escalation of the corona virus outbreak and restrictions on travel, the meeting unfortunately had to be cancelled.

PAS Work Plan

In the period 2017-2019, the PAS focused its activities on:

  • supporting the implementation of the ISSAI 3000 series
  • working with the PSC/FIPP on realizing the Strategic Development Plan for the INTOSAI Framework of Professional Pronouncements 2017-2019
  • working with the INTOSAI Chair on realizing crosscutting priority 2 in the INTOSAI Strategic Plan
  • being an arena where best practices and innovative approaches for performance audit is shared, debated and disseminated

2020-2022 PAS Work Plan:

PAS main priorities:

  • Support the implementation of the INTOSAI standards on performance auditing by focusing on PAS specific projects and the development of additional support material for performance audit.
  • Follow up and conclude PAS participation in existing engagements from the Strategic Development Plan for the INTOSAI Framework of Professional Pronouncements 2017-2019.
  • Contribute to realizing the Strategic Development Plan for the INTOSAI Framework of Professional Pronouncements 2020-2022, specifically related to:
    • Component 1: Reviewing and refining the conceptual framework, and:
    • Component 2: Development work on key topics, when relevant.
  • Start planning scheduled maintenance of ISSAI 3000 and GUIDs 3910 and 3920
    • Including GUID 3910 Appendix: Building a Performance Audit Function. 
  • Continue to be an arena for sharing knowledge and good practice in performance audit.
  • Finalise IDI´s Performance Audit ISSAI Implementation Handbook.

Other priorities:

  • Support, when possible, other INTOSAI standard setting projects that may require the involvement of performance audit experts.
  • Support, when possible, capacity building and training efforts of relevant INTOSAI bodies.

You can find more information about the PAS work plan here.