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After the Audit

Auditors follow up on recommendations to maximize positive impact. Following up furthers performance, accountability, and transparency in government.

 

We will follow up with you at defined intervals to report on your implementation. Follow-ups will be published in groups at the start of April, August, and December. Your audit team will begin working with you to understand your progress 3-6 months ahead of the planned publication dates.

The most successful auditees have done these things to prepare for audit follow-ups:

  • Ensured a shared understanding with the auditor of what “done” looked like
  • Made an implementation plan for the recommendations
  • Identified a person accountable for implementation
  • Collected documentation to share with the auditors that showed progress
  • Called the auditor with questions

 

Follow-up FAQs

DONE If you have fully implemented the recommendation, we call it "done" and we no longer follow up.

PROGRESS If you have made some efforts toward implementing the recommendation, but it has not been fully implemented or we cannot yet determine if the intended outcome has been achieved, we call it "progress" and continue to follow up.

OPEN if you have not yet begun implementation of the recommendation we call it "open" and we continue to follow up.

CLOSED if you have resolved the recommendation using an alternate approach or it has been overtaken by events we call it "closed" and we no longer follow up. 

Communication could take several forms:

We will always post results on our website — the report will be posted on the audit landing page and the status of each recommendation will be updated on our Recommendation Search. In addition, we always share the follow-up report with:

  • elected official responsible for the audited function and the agency director (if different)
  • key agency staff
  • Councilmembers and council staff
  • In some cases we may brief committees upon request

No. We can provide resources we found during audit work or answer questions about what was intended by the recommendation, but we cannot participate in a way that would compromise our independence in further audit work in the area. 

When you choose not to implement a recommendation this means that you are accepting the risk identified in the audit. To do this you will need to document:

  • the parameters of the risk you are accepting
  • your consideration of the likelihood, impact, and cost of accepting the risk compared to implementation
  • the rationale for accepting the risk
  • confirmation that appropriate leaders have approved the acceptance