1. Functions and structure
The department has four major tasks:

A. State audit: monitoring the correction of shortcomings indicated by State Comptroller and initiating actions arising from findings and recommendations.

B. Performing civil service quality audits.

C. Staff functions in the Internal Audit field in the Government and its institutes.

D. Information Security and Audit in the Government.

A.State audit
1. "Prime Ministers observations on the State Comptroller Reports"
The Government considers the audit to be a major managerial tool based on the State Comptrollers findings concerning administration, streamlining of the economy and improving public service.
According to the provisions of the State Comptroller Law of 1958 (paragraph 16), the Prime Minister submits his observations for the two parts of the State Comptrollers annual report. Prime Ministers observations on the State Comptroller Reports are placed on the Parliaments table.

Observations include:
A. Resolutions of the Ministers committee for Coordination, Administration and State Audit following State Comptroller reports.
B. Monitoring of implementation of resolutions and correcting of shortcomings.
C. Audit subjects responses to State Comptroller reports.
 
2. Ministers Committee for Coordination, Administration and State Audit
The Government has decided to establish a special ministerial committee for coordination, administration and state audit. The committee members are: Minister Tzipi Livni chairlady; Minister Shalom Simchon, and Minister Eliyahu Suisa members.
The ministers committee makes decisions intended to settle the correction of shortcomings discovered by the State Comptroller and reforms necessitated by the Comptrollers findings.

The department prepares the material required for the committees meetings, and initiates resolution proposals for correcting the shortcomings brought up for discussion and resolution.
The department forms focal and overall resolution proposals with audit subjects, in which the proceedings entailed for correcting the shortcomings are established.
 
3. Tracking the correction of shortcomings indicated by the State Comptroller
The department conducts ongoing tracking of the correction of shortcomings and the implementation of the resolutions of the Ministers Committee for Coordination, Administration and State Audit, and reports these to the Government. These reports are also placed on the table of the Knesset, and are used by the Knessets State Auditing Committee in its discussions. The department also monitors the implementation of Knesset resolutions concerning state auditing.
4. Special audits
The department is occasionally charged with special auditing tasks. These audit reports are also submitted to the Ministers Committee for Coordination, Administration and State Audit.
B. Implementing civil service quality audits
The department has a special unit that conducts surprise audits for assessing the quality of service, provided by the civil service and its institutes to the public.
The unit employs auditors who served in senior civil service positions, before retiring. They perform approximately 250 surprise audits per year. The correction of the findings discovered, is monitored. A report on their findings is transferred to the Ministers Committee for Coordination, Administration and State Audit, the Directors General of the bodies audited, the Civil Service Commissioner and the heads of the units audited.
 
C. Staff functions in the field of internal audits in the Government and Government units
The department occasionally monitors the functioning of the internal audit units of the Government and its various Institutes, with the intent of ensuring the conducting of effective internal auditing.
In 2001, the department completed a comprehensive examination of the audit in the Governmental Companies. A report has been issued to the Knesset and the Government. 
 

D. Information security and auditing
Actions intended for examining governmental activities in the field of information security fields. The State Audit findings in this field assist in process improvement.
The department is involved in the governmental activity and monitors the correction of shortcomings and implementation of Government resolutions.
The Council for Information Security and Audit acts in accordance with a Government resolution. The council has approximately 40 information security experts as members, representing Government ministries and institutes. The council convenes each month, examines security findings, discusses ways of improving the systems and forms solutions.
Some of the issues discussed in 2001 are as follows:

Protecting governmental websites.
The computer and legal procedure: electronic evidence; electronic traces; seeking and seizing computers and information; admissibility of computerized information, etc.
Encryption, digital signatures and the authorizing entity.
The Electronic Signature Law and its regulations.
Information Security and Audit.
Protection of privacy and databases.
Computer offenses

 
2. Main activities: January 1999 December 2001
The Ministers Committee for Coordination, Administration and State Audit the state made decisions during this term relating to 6 State Comptroller reports, and charged the department, inter alia, with the overseeing of actions for implementing the resolutions in coordination, streamlining, proper management and unification of governmental activities.
During this term, Prime Ministers observations on the State Comptroller Reports, and the follow-up report of the implementation of the Knessets resolutions for annual reports, were placed on the Parliament and Government table. All these documents were prepared by the department.

In addition, the department prepared a follow-up report on the Governments preparations for the Y2K bug, following a special State Comptroller report. This follow-up report, including mapping of the preparations in the Government ministries, local authorities and governmental corporations, contributed to improvements in the various systems. The report was placed on the table of the Knesset and the Government.

The department examined the internal audit status of the governmental companies and the changes that had occurred since 1997. The audit, which was performed from December 2000 to March 2001, included the examining of 75 out of the 82 governmental companies (91%). Data was not obtained from 7 companies (9%).

In this term, surprise civil service quality audits were performed at approximately 250 governmental offices open to the public throughout the country.

The department conducted a special follow-up audit for examining the preparation of northern area following the Israel Defense Forces withdrawal from Lebanon.
 
Publications:
The department has prepared a number of professional publications, such as:
Conflicts of interest in the public service outsourcing era.
Support for NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and public institutes by the Government audit findings and implementation.
Master procedures for securing sensitive information in the Government.
Ethics for the civil service: ethic codes, papers and guidelines.
Supervision and control; civil service computer systems.
Towns in the south: audit findings; resolutions; follow-ups.
Computerized student database
 
3. Senior officers
Yaakov Zeltzer deputy manager.
Akiva Isserlish field manager
Moshe Eitan field manager
Pnina Sofer field manager
Gideon Farber field manager
Efraim Tamari field manager