At the request of the Ministry of Finance of Angola, MEFMI conducted an in-house training on Public Debt Audit for officials in the Ministry from 2 to 11 September 2019.

The workshop which was conducted in Portuguese, aimed to impart knowledge and skills to officials on the fundamentals of public debt management and build skills for auditing of public debt, with a view to enhancing the quality and credibility of debt management processes and accountability for borrowed funds.

A total of 17 officials participated in the workshop. These were drawn from the Ministry’s Departments of Internal Audit of Public Debt, Risk Analysis, Finance Management, Studies and Statistics, External and Domestic Borrowing Analysis, Market Analysis, Information Technology; and Budget and Public Accounts.
The workshop was conducted in Portuguese using PowerPoint presentations, covering the following topics:

•  Foundations of public debt management;
• International standards for public sector audit;
• Role of internal and external auditors;
• Key issues in auditing public debt; and
• Types of audits and related procedures, audit reports and follow up issues.

Presentations were complimented by short videos on experiences of public debt management in Brazil. Other methods used during the workshop were: role-playing to simulate activities conducted by auditors and debt managers, case studies, exercises and group discussions.

The workshop was facilitated by Mr. Anibal Guillermo Kohlhuber, an audit expert from Sindicatura General de La Nacion (SIGEN) in Argentina; Mr. Frederico Schettini Batista, a debt expert from the National Treasury Secretariat in Brazil and Ms. Cristina Dimande of the MEFMI Secretariat.

The main output of the workshop was enhanced knowledge of Angolan officials on auditing public debt. MEFMI expects the trained officials to use the knowledge gained during the workshop to conduct informed audits of public debt management in Angola, which is necessary for enhancing transparency and accountability of such operations. Ultimately, this would contribute to effective debt management, leading to lower costs and risks of debt.