Selecting Audit Criteria

Audit criteria represent the standards expected to be met by the organization being audited. Audit criteria are a key contributor to the strength of an audit and its potential impact. Audit procedures focus on determining whether criteria are met or not met.Suitable criteria are clear, concise, relevant, reliable, neutral, understandable, and complete. If the audit criteria are irrelevant or incomplete, then the audit will likely be irrelevant and incomplete as well.

Finding suitable criteria is a challenge for any performance audit, not just for audits of gender equality. Each audit is unique due to the auditor’s mandate, audit focus, audit objectives, and the way the organization being audited approaches the audit’s subject matter. There are a number of valid approaches to an audit of gender equality. The focus can range from assessing the entire government’s approach to gender equality, to assessing how a particular program achieves gender equality. Accordingly, there is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to criteria.

Generally, auditors attempt to locate appropriate audit criteria by:

• researching best practices, standards, and regulations;
  
  
• identifying reliable benchmarks in a given sector or using baseline data on an organization’s past performance as benchmarks;
  
  
• reviewing prior audit files and published audit reports;
  
  
• contacting colleagues in other jurisdictions; and
  
  
• consulting with auditees, academics, and subject matter experts.

Subject matter experts can be a valuable resource during this phase of the audit. Literature reviews and searches of publicly available databases can be used, but they are time-consuming and may not identify the best criteria. The auditor who relies solely on published works may fail to identify the most appropriate source of criteria. Consulting internal or external subject matter experts will reduce this risk.

This Practice Guide does not provide a standard list of criteria because there are no universal criteria that would fit all audits of gender equality. The Practice Guide provides examples of potential criteriato assess:

• management’s systems and practices for achieving gender equality, and
  
  
• the level of gender equality achieved in relation to reliable benchmarks, performance targets, or baseline data.

The next pages provide guidance on how to develop audit criteria related to systems and results.

• PreviousDrafting Audit Objectives
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