BACKGROUND

The Southern African Development Community Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (SADCOSAI) was established as an independent organisation in 1991. Subsequently, in 1996, the Assembly of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions in Africa was conceived as a loose association of Auditors-General at the initiative of the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions (INTOSAI). With effect from 1 January 2005, the Auditors-General agreed to regroup the English-speaking SAIs in the region to form one effective organisation called the African Organisation of English-speaking Supreme Audit Institutions (AFROSAI-E) with its own Statutes and annual membership fees.

AFROSAI-E currently consists of twenty-one English- and two Portuguese-speaking SAIs. The Governing Board comprises of the Heads of all the SAIs that are members of AFROSAI-E. Each board member is assigned to one of the four committees that were established to consider and make recommendations on matters pertaining to human resources, finance, audit and capacity building. The organisation is managed and administered from a secretariat situated at the office of the Auditor-General in South Africa.

The intervention logic of AFROSAI-E is based on a regional capacity building framework that was developed by the organisation. It can be summarised as follows:  

VISION

AFROSAI-E is committed to ensuring that the highest degree of accountability, transparency and honesty is attained in government operations in Sub-Saharan English-speaking Africa and that public resources are properly used and managed.

                     MISSION 

AFROSAI-E will co-operate with its member Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) and help them through institutional strengthening initiatives to reach the level of audit performance necessary to fulfil their mandates.

                      GOALS 

1. The strategic development of member SAIs

2. The professional development of member SAIs.

3. Efficient, effective and economic corporate support.

STRATEGIC IMPERATIVES

1. Independence of the SAI    

2. Optimal utilization of modern technology in the auditing process

3. Human resource management

4. Quality assurance

5. Performance auditing

6. Communication and the media.

The overall developmental aim in striving to achieve the above-mentioned strategic imperatives is for as many SAIs as possible to advance to level three of the AFROSAI-E capacity building model by the end of 2009.