RESTRICTED  
  
WT/BFA/W/424  
 
7 July 2017  
(17-3665) Page: 1/2 
Committee for Budget Finance and Administration   
 
 
 
STATUS UPDATE OF THE  EXTERNAL AUDITOR 'S FINDINGS  – 2ND QUARTER 2017  
1  BACKGROUND  
1.1.  This document presents to the Committee on Budget, Finance, and Administration the status 
update concerning the findings and the recommendations implemented by the Secretariat during 
the second quarter of 2017.  
1.2.  The External Auditors , the Supreme Audit Institution of Germany, issued a global Audit report 
on the WTO financial performance status and pres ented it to the Committee for Budget Finance 
and Administration (CBFA) on June 22 nd 2017.  
1.3.  The report is the result of two interim -audits more focused on the performance aspects 
conducted form the 17th to the 21st of  October 2016 and from the 20th  to the  24th of March 2017 
and a full and detailed financial and performance audit conducted from the 3rd of April  to the 12th 
of May 2017.  
1.4.  Following each audit session the External Auditors reviewed the previously issued 
recommendations and classified them acco rding to a specific status:  
a. Closed/Done: recommendation was implemented by the Secretariat . 
b. On-going: recommendation is accepted and under implementation by the Secretariat . 
c. Open: recommendation is under review/assessment by the Secretariat . 
2  RECOMMENDATION S STATUS AT THE SECO ND QUARTER 2017  
2.1.  The current  External Auditor s began their activities in 2015 . Since the commencement of 
their mandate, they have issued a total of 44 recommendations. Out of them:  
a. 24 recommendations were fully implemented and classified  as closed.  
b. 7 recommendations issued during  audits conducted in 2015 and 2016 are still under 
implementation and are, therefore , classified as ongoing. 3 of these are related to the IT 
area and 4 to administrative aspects such as Facility Management and I nventory of 
Assets, the Secretariat foresees a full implementation of actions addressing these 
recommendations in the next two quarters.  
c. 13 new recommendations were issued during the 2017 Audit and are therefore classified 
as open/ongoing . 3 are related to  financial aspects and 10 to the performance areas.  
None of these new recommendations presents any particular criticality; the 3 financial 
recommendations refer to the reporting/policy areas and are easily implementable whilst 
the remaining performance rec ommendations pertain to the following areas:  
o Confidentiality of Information.  
o Organization of Ministerial Conferences.  
o Termination indemnities.  WT/BFA/W/424  
 
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  2.2.  During the Auditors' visits in March and April 2017 the Secretariat provided relevant 
documentation and organized meetings with relevant Secretariat officials, including Directors and 
DDGs, to facilitate  discussions with the External Auditors on the focus areas of the audit.  
2.3.  The table below shows a snapshot of the status of implementation of the audit 
recommendations referred to above.  
Table1  Status of Implementation of  Recommendations from the External Auditors  
 Recommendations  2015  2016  2017  
(new)  Total  
Recommendations issued by the External Auditors  14 17 13 44 
Recommendations implemented by the Secretariat and 
closed by the External  Auditor  13 11 0 24 
Recommendations under implementation (ongoing status)  by 
Secretariat  1 6 13 20 
 
3  NEXT STEPS  
3.1.  The Secretariat will continue to work to further meet the requirements of the Auditors. In 
particular it will assess the feasibility of the new recommendations and will implement actions and 
strategies that will be discussed with the Auditors during the ne xt interim audit planned for mid -
October 2017.  
 
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