Mid-term review of the institutional co-operation project between National Audit Office of Malawi and the Swedish National Audit Office

The Project
The National Audit Office of Malawi (NAO) and the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) have had an institutional co-operation, funded by the Norwegian and Swedish governments, since 2002. The objectives of the present phase of the project are that NAO accomplishes its audit plan, which mainly implies increasing audit coverage compared to 2004, that the audits have a consistent high quality, and the NAO works with a high degree of efficiency. This report also contains a comparison of the technical cooperation and support projects in the supreme audit institution in Malawi and Zambia.

Interesting Findings
The results of the project must be seen in light of a number of serious shortcomings in the public financial management system in the country. The number of professional staff in NAO has been heavily reduced, and there is at present no permanent Auditor General. In spite of this the project has achieved some positive results.

• A number of very positive activities have been initiated concerning training, IT development, audit planning, audit standards and information,
• Many other planned activities are on hold, in waiting for recruitment. These include more advanced audit metods.
• The Malawi National Audit Office is concerned about the high unit costs of the project, i.a. technical assistance,
• The project is referred to as the "Swedish/Nordic project", which may indicate lack of ownership on the Malawian side,
• There is a clear political side to such a "twinning arrangement", but there seems to be a lack of strategic approach. In combination with budget support such a project can have a strategic impact.