Data is growing in importance for auditors. The rapid digitalisation of the government in recent years has generated more data that we can use in our work. Digitalisation and datafication are creating new opportunities and challenges for both what we audit and how.
Why do we use this method?
Data analysis helps us answer different and more complex questions. It is often essential to audit the use of public funds, as much of the information we need is saved in digital systems and is difficult to retrieve without data analysis. The increased use of data in policy means we have to audit it and the government’s use of it more frequently. That is why we audit the government’s IT systems, data management and use of algorithms.
Specific expertise and tools are needed to work with data. The Court of Audit has accordingly set up a specialised team known as the Data Hub. It is made up of auditors with a largely quantitative or statistical background. We are also investing in training and on-the-job courses in data skills for the entire organisation.
What does the method involve?
Many of the audits in which we work with data rely on multiple complex datasets. Our data-related skills therefore include:
data source identification;
data clean-up;
data analysis;
data visualisation;
data reporting.
Most of the data we use in our audits is produced by the government. As we usually do not own the data, we cannot share it. Where appropriate, we publish data we compile ourselves as open data (see, for instance, coronarekening.rekenkamer.nl). We use scripts so that our work can be reproduced and audited. Where possible we share our scripts with external parties (see our GitLab page).
Private parties are disclosing more unusual transactions, law enforcement agencies are referring more cases to the Public Prosecution Service (OM) and more money laundering cases are being taken to court and prosecuted. The Netherlands Court of Audit concludes that there have been significant improvements combating money laundering in recent years but there are still opportunities to work more effectively. The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), law enforcement agencies and OM do not yet work optimally. They cannot guarantee that suspicious transactions with the highest risk will be investigated and ultimately prosecuted.
The approach to environmental crime and violations is inadequate. An important cause of this is the lack of good, reliable data on the outcomes of inspections at 500 or so companies in the Netherlands that work with large volumes of hazardous substances. We come to this conclusion after intensively editing and analysing the data on 20,000 inspections carried out over 5 years. The biggest challenge we faced was to link the data to the right company site. We can reveal for the first time that a small group of companies repeatedly violate environmental law.
Tax incentives for electric cars remain a relatively expensive instrument to cut CO2 emissions despite measures taken in 2019 and 2020 to reduce their cost. Special rules for light commercial vehicles lead to significant tax losses and are accompanied by high costs as a policy instrument. Light commercial vehicles also hinder achievement of air quality and climate goals.
The Netherlands Court of Audit has investigated whether the managers of the national police force have sufficient information to deploy officers effectively across organisational units and to set the right priorities.
The Dutch Public Broadcaster (NPO) is responsible for coordinating the programming of all public television, radio and online channels in the Netherlands and for the distribution of the broadcasting companies’ content. The Netherlands Court of Audit has investigated the efficiency of public broadcasting. Its main conclusion is that the NPO cannot fulfil its statutory task of spending its budget efficiently.
The Dutch population is aging. Statistics Netherlands has forecast that there will be nearly half a million more people aged over 65 than young people aged less than 20 by 2030. The aging population means more people will be entitled to a basic state pension every year.
Six million households in the Netherlands receive benefit payments every year. Those who receive too much have to pay the excess back. This leads to millions of repayment demands every year. Government policy is to reduce the number of repayment demands and the amount of money concerned.
