The audit focused on a comprehensive review of six
high-risk areas: (i) governance and risk management; (ii)
programme design and implementation; (iii) identity
management; (iv) non-governmental organization management;
(v) monitoring; and (vi) cash-based transfers. In
addition, the audit partially tested controls for six
areas: (i) donor engagement; (ii) human resource
transition; (iii) management services; (iv) supply chain
management; (v) digital solutions and automation; and (vi)
security and access management. Throughout the audit
period, WFP operations were defined by an unprecedented
scale-up of relief activities while responding to the
threat of famine. The integrated food security phase
classification for Somalia projected six million severely
food-insecure people by June 2022. It also projected
322,000 people facing catastrophic outcomes by March 2023,
triggering the risk of famine in various locations. WFP
activated the corporate scale-up emergency phase in August
2022, which lasted for nine months and was deactivated in
May 2023. The audit focused on two activities under
strategic outcomes 1 and 2, which accounted for 92 percent
of the total direct operational costs and 95 percent of
beneficiary caseload during the audit period: (i) provide
integrated food and nutritional assistance to
crisis-affected people (activity 1); (ii) provide
conditional and unconditional food and/or cash-based food
assistance and nutrition-sensitive messaging to
food-insecure people through reliable safety nets
(activity 3). Based on the results of the audit, the
Office of Internal Audit reached an overall conclusion of
major improvement needed.