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Fellow Name: Etienne Nzabonimana

Country: Rwanda

Fellow’s home audit office: Office of the Auditor General of Rwanda

Title: Audit Manager

Email: Etienne.Nzabonimana@oag.gov.rw

Audit Plan Topic: Development of industrial parks

Canadian Host Office: Office of the Auditor General of Alberta

Short Quote: “I will improve on conducting performance audits relating to the Sustainable Development Goals and share the skills gained with my fellow auditors back home.”

Grad Quote: “I enjoyed all professional development sessions, especially those on leadership and engaging auditees, which equipped me with knowledge to execute my duties effectively in my everyday life as an auditor.”

Decoration Color: Amber

Profile Headshot:

My Fellowship:

My Canadian placement:

Office of the Auditor General (OAG) of Alberta

My Canadian audit team:

I was part of:

• a performance audit of the Alberta broadband strategy, led by Principal Byron Ofner, at OAG Alberta;
• a performance audit of school authority reporting, led by Principal Monica Jeske, at OAG Alberta; and
• a performance audit of waste collection, led by Audit Manager Leslie Glasbeek, at the Office of the City Auditor of Edmonton.

My most valuable learning:

The most valuable things I learned were effective leadership, focusing on work-life balance and team-building activities within departments and audit teams, and fostering a good relationship with auditees. Another valuable learning was selecting and planning an audit based on, among other selection criteria, national and global priorities like the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to maximize its impact.

How my Canadian colleagues and mentors helped me:

My colleagues and mentors at OAG Alberta assisted in my learning a lot by taking me to visit centres in Alberta doing similar activities to my audit project, on the development of industrial parks, for learning and benchmarking purposes. They also helped me integrate into the OAG family of auditors as new member, with both moral and professional support and orientation (e.g., using OAG templates and meetings with engagement leaders for reviews and coaching).

What I enjoyed most:

Within OAG Alberta, I enjoyed the monthly departmental team-building meetings whereby management and all auditors come together, appreciate the achievements, share updates and socialize. I also enjoyed all professional development sessions, especially those on leadership and engaging auditees, which equipped me with knowledge to execute my duties effectively in my everyday life as an auditor.

My audit plan:

I developed my audit plan project with the guidance of my mentors at OAG Alberta, Principal Maureen Manning and Audit Manager Scott Loder.

The connection to my country’s development priorities:

Development of Industrial Parks (IPs) is aligned with SDG 9, on industry, innovation and infrastructure, and with Rwanda’s strategy for transformation (NST1 2018-2024). This initiative started in 2012 as strategy to increase industry’s contribution to GDP from 16% in 2009 to 21.8% by 2024. Ten new IPs were to be developed in all provinces and the Kigali Special Economic Zone was to be expanded by 2024. IPs were expected to provide infrastructure for new potential industries and environmental sustainability.

The development of IPs would be achieved under the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model. This initiative would promote employment and jobs creation and reduce the gender equality gap still existing in the industry sector.

How CAAF and my host office helped:

The mentorship from OAG Alberta helped me a lot in documenting and scoping this audit. I met my mentors once or twice every week and their reviews and inputs were really amazing, adding value to my work. At the challenge sessions, the questions and comments I received from CAAF and other participants helped me to collect additional documentation and evidence to finalize this audit plan effectively.

The skills and knowledge I improved by developing this plan:

• Presentation skills: I learned how to prepare and present materials to facilitate readers’ understanding and ability to provide input.
• Writing skills: I learned how to write in a concise and meaningful manner to make the document reader-friendly.

My future impact:

The new knowledge I’m most excited to share with my colleagues:

Invest enough time on planning the audit. Effective planning of an audit is important for its success and impact. This is because I realized that the audit plan (input) mirrors the audit report (output/ final results).

The difference I hope to make:

I realized that selecting audit topics should be aligned with national priorities and the SDGs. In all audit topics, I should assess aspects of national priorities, SDGs and gender equality to ensure that females and males have equal opportunities in the country’s policies and strategies. This should be assessed at an early stage of audit planning and throughout the course of the audit.

My professional goals:

• Ensure that the quality of audit reports is enhanced through adequate planning and examination.
• Improve on conducting performance audits relating to the Sustainable Development Goals and gender equality.
• Demonstrate effective leadership skills throughout the audit process.

My Experience Part 1:

The most Canadian thing I did was…

Skating and sliding on snow.

My favourite cultural experience in Canada was…

Seeing a hockey game and American football.

Something few Canadians know about my country is…

Rwanda is home to mountain gorillas.

My Experience Part 2:

My Fellowship experience in one sentence:

The benchmarking and learning opportunity for professionals committed to promoting auditing and accountability in their home countries.

My Fellowship in a single word:

Inspiring.

Now that I have completed the Fellowship…

I will lead successful audits and add value to the quality of my audit reports.

Two experience images (2022-2023):

Gallery (2022-2023):

Gender: Male

NZABONIMANA Etienne is an Audit Manager at the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) of Rwanda. As a performance audit team leader, he continuously aims at building successful teams and ensuring good cooperation with auditee management as well as reporting to the supervisors and OAG management. During the six years he has worked in performance auditing, he has conducted audits in sectors such as education, health, agriculture, energy, infrastructure, environment, business development, development of industrial zones, and national revenue collection. These audits contributed significantly to ensuring accountability while implementing government policies, projects, and programs.

He joined the OAG in October 2014 as an Assistant Auditor in financial audit. Prior to joining the OAG, he worked as an accountant at MEREZ Petroleum and as a secondary school teacher.

Etienne holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting and is currently completing a master’s degree in finance from the University of Rwanda. He is also taking courses to become a Certified Public Accountant. He has attended various local, regional, and international trainings in performance auditing organized by CAAF, AFROSAI-E, the Swedish National Audit Office and the OAG of Rwanda.

My goals for the Fellowship

My goals are to learn and develop skills and knowledge on how to:

• Engage stakeholders in planning (topic selection, scoping) and in the course of an audit to capture and cover all aspects of the subject matter.
• Align teams’ goals, the OAG’s mission, and stakeholders’ expectations (goal congruence).

The impact I hope to make as a graduate Fellow

After completing my Fellowship, I will:

• Ensure that the quality of performance audit reports is enhanced through adequate planning and examination.
• Improve on conducting performance audits relating to the Sustainable Development Goals and share the skills gained with my fellow auditors back home.