OAG to update audit procedures for GAO Yellow Book changes and undergo external peer review

General Coe, speaking for the Office of the Auditor General, reviewed updates in the Government Accountability Office's Government Auditing Standards (the "Yellow Book") and said OAG will adjust its audit menu to reflect this year’s changes. "This year government auditing standard, which is managed by GAO, they make some updates to the yellow book. So OAG follows the yellow book. So we also need to make adjustments to our own audit menu," he said.

Coe also told the committee that OAG is scheduled for an external peer review this year. "This year, we are up for an external peer review, meaning someone else will come in to audit our shop to ensure that we are doing the audit according to the government auditing standards," he said. The external review is a routine quality‑assurance step designed to assess conformance with professional auditing standards.

Staff highlighted Slide 14 in their presentation as the page they want the office and the public to use to understand "who OAG is" and to communicate that routine audits are intended to support management and identify areas for improvement. Coe used a prevention analogy: "Prevention is always better than cure," he said, describing routine audits as a preventive measure to "identify areas that need attention." There was no formal committee action recorded on the presentation; staff will proceed with internal updates to audit procedures and prepare for the peer review.

Ending: OAG staff will update audit procedures to align with the Yellow Book changes and coordinate the external peer review workplan; the committee received the report and moved on to the next agenda item.