Success of e-government hinged on efficient audit function
Jonah Iboma
The inclusion of an efficient systems audit function has been described as an essential ingredient for a successful implementation of the nation’s electronic government (e-government) project.
Chris Ekeigwe, managing consultant at EDP Audit and Security Associates, who revealed this in Lagos recently said that the while e-government is a good way to improving services delivery to the citizens, without proper audit control there would not be stability in the system.
According to him, audit control is a very key pillar of governance. There is no governance in the history of humanity that has actually stayed without a framework of accountability and audit is an important element in the enforcement of accountability whether you are doing manual accounting, manual information or computer information system. He added that audit is a very important leg, if you take out that leg, the table will not have balance.
Ekeigwe lamented that all the talks going on about the e-government initiative going on today, literally nothing is being said about audit noting that crime is more efficient in a computerized environment than in a manual environment.
He revealed that this is the reason the EDP Tecknowledge Education Center, the nation’s premier systems audit training center is organising the first national seminar and conference on electronic government (e-government) audit.
He stated that the seminar scheduled for the first quarter of 2007 at the EDP Tecknowledge Education Center in Ojodu Berger in Lagos has the theme “Building information technology (IT) audit competence for government auditors”.
The system audit professional said that the purpose of the conference would be to create the consciousness in the executives, audit executives, government executives in charge of operations, technology and auditing that the audit is not something to go round.
System auditing, he argued would enable auditors to see the raw computer data not just printed reports because printed reports can be modified and manipulated.
Ekeigwe insisted that that as governments adopt, deploy and exploit information and communications technologies (ICTs) to execute their programs, auditors would see changes and challenges in their work environment, top of which would be bridging the competence gap.
According to him, building new capabilities for the audit challenge of e-government is a shared responsibility of the government (employer) and the individual audit professionals. The e-government seminar is an opportunity for audit officers and decision makers in government to share thoughts on the challenges and how to devise viable strategies for contending effectively with them, he added.
He averred that the e-government initiative as a project cannot succeed without information assurance. And information assurance is what e-government audit is all about. Audit is as a function is a key element of any form of governance, whether public or corporate.
The inclusion of an efficient systems audit function has been described as an essential ingredient for a successful implementation of the nation’s electronic government (e-government) project.
Chris Ekeigwe, managing consultant at EDP Audit and Security Associates, who revealed this in Lagos recently said that the while e-government is a good way to improving services delivery to the citizens, without proper audit control there would not be stability in the system.
According to him, audit control is a very key pillar of governance. There is no governance in the history of humanity that has actually stayed without a framework of accountability and audit is an important element in the enforcement of accountability whether you are doing manual accounting, manual information or computer information system. He added that audit is a very important leg, if you take out that leg, the table will not have balance.
Ekeigwe lamented that all the talks going on about the e-government initiative going on today, literally nothing is being said about audit noting that crime is more efficient in a computerized environment than in a manual environment.
He revealed that this is the reason the EDP Tecknowledge Education Center, the nation’s premier systems audit training center is organising the first national seminar and conference on electronic government (e-government) audit.
He stated that the seminar scheduled for the first quarter of 2007 at the EDP Tecknowledge Education Center in Ojodu Berger in Lagos has the theme “Building information technology (IT) audit competence for government auditors”.
The system audit professional said that the purpose of the conference would be to create the consciousness in the executives, audit executives, government executives in charge of operations, technology and auditing that the audit is not something to go round.
System auditing, he argued would enable auditors to see the raw computer data not just printed reports because printed reports can be modified and manipulated.
Ekeigwe insisted that that as governments adopt, deploy and exploit information and communications technologies (ICTs) to execute their programs, auditors would see changes and challenges in their work environment, top of which would be bridging the competence gap.
According to him, building new capabilities for the audit challenge of e-government is a shared responsibility of the government (employer) and the individual audit professionals. The e-government seminar is an opportunity for audit officers and decision makers in government to share thoughts on the challenges and how to devise viable strategies for contending effectively with them, he added.
He averred that the e-government initiative as a project cannot succeed without information assurance. And information assurance is what e-government audit is all about. Audit is as a function is a key element of any form of governance, whether public or corporate.
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