The Transition from Manual Audits to a Data Analytics Framework

[...]the Division of State Audit must operate within an environment that rations audit and staff time and funding. Historically, the division was not able to audit certain agencies each year, increasing the risk that fraud or inefficiency could go undiscovered. [...]as with most government audit organizations, budget limitations restricted both the scope of audits and the amount of audit evidence that staff could gather and analyze during a given audit, increasing the risk that an audit could generate a faulty outcome. The lack of transparency created by automated systems required the placement of new computer procedures and configurable controls between the auditor and the data.6 In other words, the division faced "a bigger layer of technology separating [their auditors and managers] from the data/7 Another challenge was the significant investment required to produce change. The very practice of requiring auditors to construct data queries introduces ample opportunities for human error, such as omitting information, duplicating data, or incorrectly copying data. [...]it is nearly impossible to be certain that a data set is complete.