About the Audit Office

The Audit Office of the Velocity Interoperability Network is the independent auditor of the Velocity Interoperability Network. It examines the accounts and administration of the 26 departments and 44 network services of the Network, reports its findings to the Network Assembly and publishes them for the public. Its purpose is to give the Assembly and the public an independent assurance that public money has been properly accounted for and well used, and to help the bodies it audits to improve.

The Office was established on 6 September 2026. It is headed by the Auditor General, who is appointed by the Assembly for a single term of seven years, may be removed only by a resolution of the Assembly, and may not be directed by any department, minister or official in the selection of subjects for audit, the conduct of an audit or the content of a report. The Office's budget is set by the Assembly rather than by the departments it audits, and its own accounts are audited by an external auditor appointed by the Assembly.

Duties. The Office's work falls into seven areas.

Certification of accounts: To examine and certify the consolidated accounts of the Network and the accounts of each department, and to state whether they present a true and fair view and whether the money was spent for the purposes the Network Assembly intended.
Audit of compliance: To examine whether departments and network services have acted within their powers and in accordance with the financial rules, procurement rules and schemes of delegation that apply to them.
Performance audit: To examine the economy, efficiency and effectiveness with which departments and network services use the resources entrusted to them, and to report on how they might do better.
Systems and data assurance: To examine the reliability of the accounting, payroll, registration and identity systems on which the Network depends, and the controls over access to them and over the personal data they hold.
Reporting to the Assembly and the public: To lay every report before the Network Assembly and to publish it on this site the same day, together with a summary of its findings and the response of the audited body.
Following up recommendations: To keep a register of every recommendation made, to record the response of the body to which it is addressed, and to report on the progress made six and twelve months after publication.
Advice on financial control: To advise departments and network services, on request and without prejudice to later audit, on the design of financial controls, and to publish guidance drawn from audit findings that is of general application.

Organisation. At establishment the Office has 48 staff. Its audit work is carried out by four directorates: Financial Audit, which certifies accounts; Compliance and Governance; Performance Audit; and Systems and Data Assurance. A small corporate services unit supports them. Each directorate is headed by a director who reports to the Auditor General and who is responsible for the quality of the reports issued in the directorate's name. The staff of the Office were drawn, during the transition period from 10 August to 5 September 2026, from the internal audit functions of member organisations of the Network.

70
Departments and network services within the Office's remit: 26 departments and 44 services: 48
Staff at establishment, in four audit directorates and a corporate services unit: 7
Years in the single, non-renewable term of the Auditor General: 6
Reports published on the day of establishment, making 24 recommendations

Rights of access. The Office has a right of access at all reasonable times to every document held by a body it audits and to the explanations of its officers. Bodies are required to give the Office the information it asks for within the time it specifies. Information obtained in the course of an audit is used only for the purposes of the audit and is not disclosed except in a published report or as required by law.

The Office does not audit member organisations of the Network, which remain responsible for their own affairs, and it does not audit private companies except in so far as their dealings with a department or network service fall within an audit of that body. It does not investigate individual complaints of maladministration, which are for the body concerned in the first instance.

For how an audit is conducted, see How We Audit; for the standards that govern the Office's work, see Auditing Standards; for the Office's origins, see History. General enquiries may be sent to contact@audit.gov.vin.