ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the challenges and barriers faced in undertaking environmental performance auditing is based upon both sources of data. One such challenge is the long-term nature of environmental problems and associated initiatives to respond to them. The more notable point here is that an overwhelming majority of Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) do recognize that the long-term nature of some environmental initiatives pose challenges to performance auditing. The Working Group on Environmental Auditing has been collecting data on barriers to environmental auditing in its tri-annual surveys of SAIs. Despite its acknowledged benefits, cooperation is not always occurring, as many SAIs face several barriers to cooperation Lack of resources, lack of skills within the SAI and lack of partners for cooperation are the three top barriers to cooperation. Compared with other regions, the SAIs in the EUROSAI region is generally more resourceful and perhaps the European Union also provides a more conducive context for cooperation.
