Thumbnail Headshot:

Fellow Name: Alpha Kécouta Seck

Country: Senegal

Fellow’s home audit office: Cour des comptes du Sénégal (Senegal Court of Audit)

Title: Magistrate, Advisor

Email: akseck@courdescomptes.sn

Audit Plan Topic: Management of transferred health-care responsibilities in the towns of Pikine, Guédiawaye and Rufisque

Canadian Host Office: Office of the Auditor General of Québec

Grad Quote: "I will share my experience with my colleagues and put into practice the ideas and skills I have acquired.”

Gallery (2023-2024):

Two experience images (2023-2024):

Decoration Color: Amber

Profile Headshot:

My Fellowship:

My Canadian placement:

Office of the Auditor General of Quebec (VGQ)

My Canadian audit team:

I took part in a performance audit on the management of ambulance services, led by Audit Director Etienne Coté.

My most valuable learning:

• Theoretical insight into performance auditing
• A better understanding of objectives and criteria
• An in-depth approach to developing an audit programme

How my Canadian colleagues and mentors helped me:

My Canadian colleagues and mentors showed me how to develop:

• A better audit approach, taking into account a summary of evidence to support the various findings
• A better formulation of findings with the possibility of drawing conclusions and following up on recommendations

What I enjoyed most:

• Our meetings as part of the VGQ audit team
• Our fruitful exchanges during the CAAF courses

My audit plan:

I developed my audit plan with the guidance of my mentor at the VGQ, Performance Audit Advisor Jean-Louis Mbadinga.

The connection to my country’s development priorities:

This performance audit is a first for local authorities. The findings could help to improve access to healthcare in an equitable way for the population. It could lead the targeted local authorities to measure the quality of their healthcare interventions and develop better strategies for action in this area. As such, it could lead to improvements in the institutional framework to better meet needs.

How CAAF and my host office helped:

During the development of this audit plan, my mentors at CAAF and the VGQ helped me develop my understanding of:

• Theoretical concepts in performance auditing
• The link between the audit subject, the objectives and the criteria
• The importance of integrating gender and sustainable development dimensions, but also of a better relationship with the entities to be audited

The skills and knowledge I improved by developing this plan:

• Identifying the issues of interest in an audit subject
• How to conduct productive interviews with auditees
• A better working strategy for the audit team

My future impact:

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

I'm looking forward to sharing new knowledge about performance measurement for SAIs because, through this tool, we can improve all the Court's working systems.

The difference I hope to make:

• Better consideration of gender issues and the SDGs in future audits
• A sustainable development analysis grid for future audits

My professional goals:

I hope to take part in SAI evaluation missions, take part in missions to exchange experiences not only with colleagues from the Court but also with colleagues from sister courts in other countries, and set up a club for friends of CAAF.

My Experience Part 1:

The most Canadian thing I did was…

Watching a hockey game with Mandy, Kate and the other Fellows.

My favourite cultural experience in Canada was…

Going to the theatre and watching a great comedy performed by a VGQ colleague, as well as my walks on the Plains of Abraham.

My Experience Part 2:

My Fellowship experience in one sentence:

It was a great experience, useful and enjoyable on both a human and professional level.

My Fellowship in a single word:

Enriching!

Now that I have completed the Fellowship…

I will share my experience with my colleagues and put into practice the ideas and skills I have acquired.

Gender: Female

Alpha holds a master’s degree in public law and an advanced studies diploma in decentralization law and management of local authorities, all from the Université Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis. He graduated from the Centre de Formation Judiciaire du Sénégal in 2011, and also received training from the École Régionale Supérieure de la Magistrature on the OHADA (Organization for the Harmonisation of Business Law in Africa) Uniform Acts in 2013. For ten years, he served in turn as a correctional and commercial judge, a family court judge and an examining magistrate.

He joined the Cour des comptes du Sénégal, the country’s supreme audit institution, in March 2021 as a Magistrate, Advisor, in the Local Authorities Chamber of the Court.

He has taken several training courses offered by the Cour des comptes on performance auditing and applied that knowledge in the context of an annual assessment of a funding program for local authorities called Pacasen (Programme d'Appui aux Communes et aux Agglomérations du Sénégal).

My goals for the Fellowship

I intend to make the most of the opportunity the Fellowship presents me to benefit from the tools and methodology of performance auditing. I am also interested in techniques for examining and understanding the accounts of public organizations, financial analysis and greater mastery of advanced IT tools.

The impact I hope to make as a graduate Fellow

With the experience and knowledge I acquire, I plan to carry out an initial performance audit on entities falling within the scope of the Local Authorities Chamber. I will also share my experience with other colleagues, to stimulate a new dynamic focused on performance auditing in accordance with the Court's Strategic Plan.