Due to the relative novelty of AI, experience in this field is still evolving, but Estonian National Audit Office considers it crucial to acquire basic competencies and be familiar with established standards and emerging best practices.
The training programme is in English and consists of four modules:
- Module 1 provides an overview of key AI concepts and usage strategies, covers AI regulations and applications in the public sector, highlights risks related to unlawful, unethical, or inefficient use, and explains the role of human oversight in AI implementation in the public sector.
- Module 2 introduces the main attack vectors of AI systems and ways to mitigate associated risks, addresses data governance, information security, and privacy-enhancing technologies and their role in ensuring AI systems’ security, as well as the use of AI in cybersecurity.
- Module 3 focuses on the practical auditing process, addressing the specifics of AI in IT audits, methodological approaches to auditing governance, risk management, and cybersecurity of AI systems, as well as auditing models and algorithms.
- Module 4 covers emerging AI trends and offers practical examples and recommendations for continuous self-improvement to maintain AI-related knowledge base and relevant skills.
In addition to the NAOE, the supreme audit institutions of Egypt, India, Israel, Morocco, Oman, Slovenia, Sudan, Switzerland, The Netherlands, and the United States participated in the development of the training programme.
Since 2020, the National Audit Office of Estonia has been chairing the IT Working Group (ITWG) of EUROSAI, the umbrella organization of European Supreme Audit Institutions. One of the working group’s focus projects is the Research and Training Hub within which the NAOE has previously developed, in cooperation with the Supreme Audit Institution of Germany, a freely accessible e-learning program titled “Introduction to Public Sector IT Audit”. ITWG training programmes are available at: https://training.eurosai-it.org/.
