Our engagement in international activities allows us to keep abreast of developments in public-sector auditing, exchange knowledge with colleagues from other parts of the world and change to our auditing practice.
For historical – and geographical – reasons, we have particular close ties with the other Nordic countries (The Faroe Islands, Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden). Most recently, we have exchanged information about the Covid-19 financial relief programmes that the governments of the Nordic countries have put together. Additionally, the Norwegian, Swedish and Finnish national audit offices have accepted our invitation to carry out an external evaluation of our financial audit and major studies (a peer review) in the course of 2021.
We are also – through Denmark’s membership of the European Union – participating in meetings relating to the European Court of Auditors’ and the Commission’s audits in Denmark.
Rigsrevisionen is a member of INTOSAI (the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions) and EUROSAI (the European branch of INTOSAI). We are participating in a number of working groups and committees established under these two organisations, where we exchange knowledge with our colleagues around the world on the issues and challenges facing national audit offices. Rigsrevisionen has also for two decades been heavily involved in the development of a set of international standards for financial, compliance and performance auditing in the public-sector auditing – the ISSAIs. These standards also provided the basis for Rigsrevisionen’s development of a set of national standards for public-sector auditing (SOR) in 2017.
In addition to our participation in work groups and committees, we also draw on a more informal knowledge network created by our staff over the years. This network has proved its worth on many occasions and is as important a source of inspiration to us as the more formal working forums. We have, for instance, followed the lead of the Dutch national audit office and are now using infographics in all our major studies to communicate complex processes. And the national audit office of New Zealand inspired us to launch a new product in 2019: A one-pager that sums up the purpose and results of our major studies.