Audit Reports

As part of its annual workplan, the Office of Internal Audit conducted an audit of information technology management and support in WFP country offices that focused on: governance and risk management, resources management, service delivery, and locally developed and procured systems. The Technology Division aims to weave digital technology into WFP’s core business activities to improve WFP programmes and operations in the field and empower those it serves, helping accelerate WFP’s journey to zero hunger. Adequate information technology resources, effective governance and risk management are fundamental to ensuring reliable information technology operations are delivered effectively and cost-efficiently. The audit focused on the adequacy and operating effectiveness of controls, governance mechanisms, and risk management frameworks related to information technology management within WFP country offices. Based on the results of the audit, the Office of Internal Audit reached an overall conclusion of some improvement needed.

The BUSBE project aimed to revisit the management of funding sources in WFP and determine how best to appropriately align funding to activities in regional bureaux, country offices and headquarters divisions. Through a bottom-up approach, the project aimed to deliver recommendations for planning and budget teams to align funding with operational priorities in a consistent and efficient manner. In addition, it was intended that better allocation of funding sources for activities would bring transparency and improve accountability to stakeholders. Based on the results of the audit, and with consideration to this being an ongoing project, the Office of Internal Audit has assigned two ratings to distinguish: (1) the relevance of the project and its initial design (vision) requiring some improvements; and (2) its project management and implementation demanding major improvements to ensure the project maintains its momentum and continues to be relevant, coherent and provides the outcomes envisaged initially.

As part of its annual work plan, the Office of Internal Audit conducted an audit of the WFP Information Network and Global Systems (WINGS) upgrade. WINGS seamlessly integrates several elements within WFP’s enterprise resource planning system (based on SAP software) to manage the organisation’s critical business functions, including procurement, supply chain, finance, travel and human resources. The upgrade to WINGS was prompted by the announcement of the end of technical support by the vendor of WFP’s SAP running version, and the associated need to move from an Oracle to a HANA database. The types of changes associated with a major upgrade such as this bring about significant risks of operational disruptions, compromised integrity of the migrated data, and/or gaps in IT security, automated and access controls. The audit concentrated on the following control areas, plus their associated risks and related mitigations:(i)project management and governance; (ii) training and awareness; (iii) integration and impact analysis, data conversion and data quality; (iv) access management; and (v) change management. Based on the results of the audit, the Office of Internal Audit has come to an overall conclusion of effective / satisfactory.