Challenge

Audit Flanders supports local governments and the Flemish administration in the management of financial, legal and organizational risks and therefore performs different types of audits.

In order to perform an audit at an audited entity, Audit Flanders mainly bases itself on information provided by this entity itself. This may involve structured data (e.g. accounting data, overviews of suppliers, etc.), but also non-structured information (e.g. agreements, reports, specifications, tenders, etc.). The auditors are responsible for data collection, data cleansing and data analysis and have several tools at their disposal for this purpose. One of these tools is e-discovery software. The framework agreement for the use of this software expires at the end of 2024.

With this PIO proposal, Audit Flanders wants to investigate whether a mere replacement of this tool is the optimal decision. Possibly there are more innovative solutions that could offer added value to speed up the audit process, alleviate the manual work (indexing, referencing) and make the analysis more efficient through the application of machine learning or artificial intelligence and through the embedding of RPA (Robotic Process Automation). Ideally, the platform also ensures a smooth and secure data exchange with the audited entity. Audit Flanders would like guidance in conducting a technical needs analysis, a market exploration and the preparation of a business plan. Based on this, the scope and placement procedure for an innovative public procurement can then be determined.