The Government Accountability Office's quality assurance system has received a clean audit opinion from an international peer review team.
The year-long peer review, conducted under the auspices of a global working group of international audit institutions, included an examination of all aspects of the GAO's quality assurance framework, from engagement acceptance to issuance of the final product.
The review was led by the Office of the Auditor General of Canada, with other members from counterpart audit institutions in Australia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, South Africa and Sweden. The team also observed the GAO's agency-wide annual internal inspection program, designed to provide the comptroller general with an assessment of compliance with government auditing standards and GAO policies.
"On behalf of all the professionals at the GAO, I am very pleased that this international peer review team concluded that Congress and the American people can have confidence that the GAO's work is independent, objective and reliable," said David M. Walker, comptroller general and head of the GAO.
The team also suggested that the GAO re-examine its in-house requirements to identify potential opportunities for efficiency through greater use of risk-based principles in its quality framework.
The peer review report is available on the GAO Web site,
