Enhancing the Oversight Impact of Chile’s Supreme Audit Institution

The impact of the work of supreme audit institutions (SAIs) largely depends on the ability and willingness of the audited entities to implement the changes suggested in the audit reports issued by the SAIs. Applying behavioural insights (BI) can help SAIs promote the uptake of their audit reports and recommendations. BI is a perspective based on psychology, cognitive science, and social science that takes into account how humans actually make choices, and can be used to help design better policies. The report analyses how the SAI of Chile, the Comptroller General of the Republic (CGR), produces audit reports and monitors their follow-up. Based on this analysis, the report identifies and discusses challenges hampering the timely follow-up and identifies opportunities to use behavioural insights to address them. Ultimately, a behaviourally informed review of the auditing and follow-up process could help significantly improve the added value of the CGR’s work and thus the effectiveness and efficiency of the public administration in Chile.