Strengthening the Capacity of Auditors in Cuba

This project aims to strengthen public accountability in Cuba by improving the ability of the Cuban government to build transparent financial and economic management. The project aims to introduce modern auditing approaches and techniques based on Canadian and international models. The project supports the decentralization of the audit function across Cuba in order to increase its effectiveness. The project seeks to train a new cadre of auditors to international standards enabling them to contribute significantly to strengthening institutional accountability in Cuba. Greater public financial accountability is key to reducing the risk of fraud and corruption during Cuba’s economic reform from centralized control to greater liberalization. Key project activities include: (i) providing practical and theoretical training (courses workshops lectures) to auditors within the National Audit System on audit methodologies supervision and control practices; and (ii) providing training and technical assistance to the Office of the Comptroller General of Cuba and its auditors to certify them in accordance with international standards.

Results achieved as of the end of the project (July 2018) include: (1) the project certified 88 staff from Cuba’s Office of the Comptroller General (CGR) as Training Specialists and designed 26 courses that will serve to train Cuba’s current and future auditors; (2) the project trained 382 auditors including 312 women on audit control methodology and supervision enhancing the CGR’s ability to incorporate for example gender and the environment in auditing practices; (3) the project disseminated nine auditing best practices through national and international workshops and seminars thereby enhancing Cuban audit standards; (4) the project successfully increased the IT capacity of the CGR procuring approximately 1700 articles that included computers printers software and network infrastructure.