Digital audit systems help identify risks quickly, auditor says

Digital audit systems enable auditors to quickly identify possible risks and deviations among large volumes of data, Elif Nur Bilgin, an auditor of the Turkish Court of Accounts, said.

Report informs that she made the remarks at the "Digital Public Audit for Sustainable Regional Integration" event organized by Azerbaijan's Chamber of Accounts in Baku as part of the 51st Annual Meeting of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) Group.

According to her, one of the main capabilities of the VERA system - Data Analysis and Risk Tools, which automatically analyzes data before an audit begins - is its static analytics mechanism.

"As soon as the auditor enters the system, all analyses and risk indicators are automatically displayed. The auditor does not need to write additional queries or enter parameters. The system provides a broad initial picture of the institution's financial condition from the very beginning," Bilgin said.

According to the auditor, when analyzing payroll data, the VERA system compares payments made to employees working in the same position and at the same grade, identifying possible inconsistencies.

"Employees with the same position and the same grade should receive approximately the same salary. If there are indicators outside this framework, those cases become a subject of investigation for the auditor. The system does not accuse anyone of violating the law; it simply visualizes thousands of rows of data and makes exceptional cases visible," she said.

Bilgin noted that this approach allows auditors to focus directly on risky operations instead of working through random sampling.

"Each detected deviation is then investigated to determine whether it was caused by a technical error, data inconsistency or objective reasons," she said.