Public Debt and Fiscal Risk Auditing Training Course

Course Introduction

Public debt is a critical component of fiscal management, providing governments and public institutions with resources to finance infrastructure, development programmes, budget deficits, and strategic investments. However, excessive borrowing, weak debt governance, poor risk management, and inadequate oversight can create significant fiscal pressures. Effective auditing therefore plays an important role in assessing whether debt is sustainably managed and whether borrowing decisions are properly authorised, transparent, and aligned with fiscal objectives.

This course provides a comprehensive and practical framework for auditing public debt and fiscal risks across central government, sub-national government, public entities, state-owned enterprises, development institutions, and other organisations exposed to sovereign or public-sector financial obligations. It examines debt planning, borrowing strategies, debt issuance, debt servicing, guarantees, contingent liabilities, refinancing risks, foreign currency exposure, and the governance arrangements supporting responsible public debt management.

Participants will develop advanced capabilities to assess the effectiveness of debt management controls and determine whether borrowing activities comply with applicable laws, policies, fiscal rules, approved debt strategies, and established financial management requirements. The programme explores the audit of domestic and external debt, concessional and commercial borrowing, sovereign guarantees, public-private partnership obligations, on-lending arrangements, debt restructuring, and other complex financing mechanisms that can affect public finances.

The course also focuses extensively on fiscal risk identification, measurement, monitoring, and reporting. Participants will learn how to evaluate debt sustainability assumptions, interest-rate exposure, exchange-rate movements, maturity profiles, refinancing concentrations, fiscal buffers, contingent liabilities, and financial risks arising from public corporations and government-supported entities. Practical audit approaches will be used to connect debt exposures with broader fiscal conditions, budgetary pressures, revenue capacity, and long-term financial sustainability.

Modern debt management increasingly depends on sophisticated financial systems, data analytics, scenario modelling, digital platforms, and forward-looking risk intelligence. Accordingly, the programme addresses emerging issues including debt transparency, climate-related financing, green and sustainability-linked borrowing, artificial intelligence in financial risk analysis, digital debt management systems, cyber risks, complex derivatives, evolving international financing structures, and increased scrutiny of fiscal disclosures. These developments are considered from an audit and assurance perspective.

By completing the programme, participants will be better prepared to plan, execute, document, and report high-quality public debt and fiscal risk audits. They will strengthen their ability to evaluate debt governance, analyse financial exposures, assess sustainability, identify control weaknesses, investigate unusual transactions, communicate significant risks, and recommend practical improvements. The course ultimately supports stronger fiscal accountability, responsible borrowing, enhanced transparency, and more resilient public financial management.

Duration

10 days

Who Should Attend

• Internal auditors responsible for auditing public debt, fiscal management, treasury operations, and financial risk controls.

• External auditors conducting audits of government borrowing, debt portfolios, fiscal sustainability, and public financial management.

• Public debt management officers involved in debt strategy, borrowing operations, debt servicing, and portfolio monitoring.

• Treasury officials responsible for government financing, cash management, debt issuance, and fiscal risk oversight.

• Finance directors, chief financial officers, accountants, and financial managers working within public-sector institutions.

• Fiscal policy specialists responsible for analysing government revenues, expenditures, deficits, financing needs, and fiscal sustainability.

• Risk management professionals assessing sovereign, financial, operational, market, liquidity, and contingent fiscal risks.

• Budget officers involved in assessing the impact of debt servicing and borrowing requirements on budgetary allocations.

• Public financial management professionals seeking advanced capabilities in debt and fiscal risk assurance.

• Audit managers and supervisors responsible for planning and reviewing complex public debt audit engagements.

• Officials working with state-owned enterprises and public bodies exposed to government guarantees, borrowing, or contingent liabilities.

• Professionals involved in public-private partnerships, infrastructure financing, sovereign guarantees, or other complex public financing arrangements.

• Development finance and donor-funded programme professionals responsible for financing compliance, debt-related conditions, and financial accountability.

• Government policymakers and senior managers seeking stronger understanding of public debt risks, controls, and accountability mechanisms.

Course Objectives

• Develop advanced knowledge of public debt management principles and enable participants to evaluate whether borrowing frameworks support fiscal sustainability, accountability, transparency, and sound financial governance.

• Strengthen participants’ ability to audit domestic and external debt portfolios, including borrowing arrangements, debt issuance, repayment obligations, interest costs, maturity structures, and refinancing exposures.

• Enable participants to identify, assess, and document fiscal risks arising from debt accumulation, interest-rate movements, exchange-rate volatility, refinancing pressures, contingent liabilities, and economic uncertainty.

• Equip participants with practical methodologies for evaluating public debt governance structures, legal authorities, institutional responsibilities, debt strategies, borrowing limits, and accountability arrangements.

• Develop advanced audit skills for assessing debt sustainability analyses, fiscal projections, macroeconomic assumptions, stress tests, scenario analysis, and the reliability of information supporting borrowing decisions.

• Strengthen participants’ capacity to audit debt servicing processes, including principal repayments, interest payments, fees, penalties, refinancing transactions, and reconciliation of debt records with accounting and treasury systems.

• Enable participants to assess government guarantees, on-lending arrangements, public-private partnership obligations, state-owned enterprise exposures, and other contingent liabilities that may create unexpected fiscal pressures.

• Develop the ability to use financial data analytics to identify unusual debt transactions, reconciliation differences, maturity concentrations, refinancing exposures, inaccurate classifications, and potential control failures.

• Improve participants’ understanding of foreign currency debt, interest-rate risk, liquidity risk, market risk, refinancing risk, and other financial exposures affecting public debt portfolios and fiscal resilience.

• Strengthen professional judgement in evaluating audit evidence, determining the significance of debt and fiscal risk findings, identifying root causes, and developing practical risk-based recommendations.

• Enhance participants’ ability to communicate complex debt and fiscal risk issues clearly through audit reports, management briefings, audit committee presentations, and accountability reports for senior stakeholders.

• Prepare participants to address emerging public debt challenges involving digital debt systems, climate finance, sustainable borrowing, artificial intelligence, cyber risk, innovative financing, and increasingly complex fiscal risk environments.

Comprehensive Course Outline

Module 1: Foundations of Public Debt and Fiscal Risk Auditing

• Principles, objectives, classifications, and components of public debt and their significance to fiscal management and financial accountability.

• The role of internal and external auditors in assessing public borrowing, debt governance, fiscal sustainability, and financial risk management.

• Major public debt risks, audit assertions, control objectives, and common weaknesses affecting government borrowing and debt administration.

• Risk-based approaches to public debt auditing, including materiality, audit criteria, professional judgement, evidence requirements, and engagement prioritisation.

Module 2: Public Debt Governance, Legal Frameworks and Institutional Responsibilities

• Public debt laws, fiscal rules, borrowing authorities, debt ceilings, delegated powers, and regulatory requirements governing government borrowing.

• Institutional responsibilities among finance ministries, treasuries, central banks, debt management offices, public entities, and oversight institutions.

• Governance frameworks for debt strategy formulation, borrowing approval, debt reporting, risk monitoring, and accountability to oversight bodies.

• Auditing compliance with debt governance arrangements, including approval processes, reporting obligations, borrowing limits, and statutory requirements.

Module 3: Public Debt Risk Assessment and Audit Planning

• Identification and assessment of debt-related risks arising from borrowing structures, maturity profiles, market conditions, fiscal pressures, and financial obligations.

• Development of risk-based audit plans covering debt issuance, debt servicing, portfolio management, guarantees, contingent liabilities, and fiscal risk reporting.

• Audit scoping, objectives, criteria, materiality, sampling approaches, timelines, resources, and documentation requirements for public debt engagements.

• Use of prior audits, debt statistics, financial reports, management information, and risk indicators to identify significant areas requiring detailed audit attention.

Module 4: Debt Strategy, Borrowing Plans and Fiscal Sustainability

• Auditing medium-term debt strategies and assessing alignment between borrowing plans, fiscal objectives, financing needs, and sustainable debt management.

• Evaluation of borrowing assumptions, financing requirements, debt targets, cost-risk trade-offs, and portfolio objectives used in public debt strategies.

• Assessment of debt sustainability analyses, fiscal projections, macroeconomic assumptions, stress testing, and alternative borrowing scenarios.

• Identification of weaknesses involving unrealistic assumptions, inadequate fiscal buffers, excessive borrowing dependence, and insufficient consideration of long-term debt risks.

Module 5: Domestic and External Debt Auditing

• Audit approaches for domestic debt instruments, treasury securities, government bonds, loans, overdrafts, and other forms of domestic public borrowing.

• Examination of external loans, multilateral financing, bilateral borrowing, commercial facilities, concessional loans, and foreign-denominated debt obligations.

• Testing debt balances, interest calculations, maturity schedules, repayment terms, fees, and accounting records against authoritative debt documentation.

• Assessment of controls over debt registration, reconciliation, confirmation, classification, reporting, and disclosure for domestic and external obligations.

Module 6: Debt Issuance, Borrowing Transactions and Market Operations

• Auditing debt issuance processes, auction procedures, borrowing approvals, pricing mechanisms, settlement arrangements, and transaction documentation.

• Evaluation of controls over bond issuance, private placements, syndicated loans, refinancing transactions, and other public borrowing arrangements.

• Assessment of transparency, competitive processes, conflict-of-interest controls, transaction authorisation, and compliance with approved borrowing programmes.

• Identification of unusual issuance patterns, excessive transaction costs, unsupported borrowing decisions, and weaknesses in debt market operational controls.

Module 7: Debt Servicing, Repayment and Interest Cost Controls

• Auditing principal repayments, interest payments, commitment fees, penalties, transaction charges, and other costs associated with servicing public debt.

• Evaluation of debt service schedules, payment instructions, approval controls, bank reconciliations, and mechanisms preventing missed or duplicate debt payments.

• Testing interest calculations, repayment amounts, currency conversions, payment dates, and debt servicing records against contractual and financial documentation.

• Analysis of debt service pressures and their impact on fiscal space, budget allocations, liquidity management, and the government’s ability to meet financial obligations.

Module 8: Debt Portfolio Risk and Financial Market Exposure

• Assessment of interest-rate risk, exchange-rate risk, refinancing risk, liquidity risk, concentration risk, and market valuation risks within public debt portfolios.

• Analysis of maturity profiles, repayment concentrations, fixed and variable interest structures, currency composition, and exposure to changing financial market conditions.

• Audit procedures for evaluating debt portfolio risk indicators, limits, hedging arrangements, risk reports, and management responses to changing market conditions.

• Application of scenario analysis and stress testing to assess the potential fiscal consequences of adverse interest-rate, exchange-rate, and refinancing developments.

Module 9: Government Guarantees, On-Lending and Contingent Liabilities

• Auditing government guarantees, letters of comfort, on-lending arrangements, indemnities, and other commitments that may generate future public financial obligations.

• Evaluation of guarantee approval processes, risk assessments, beneficiary monitoring, pricing, collateral, exposure limits, and reporting requirements.

• Assessment of contingent liabilities arising from state-owned enterprises, public-private partnerships, litigation, financial institutions, infrastructure projects, and other public-sector exposures.

• Techniques for identifying, measuring, monitoring, and reporting contingent fiscal risks before they materialise into direct government liabilities.

Module 10: Fiscal Risk Analysis, Stress Testing and Scenario Assessment

• Frameworks for identifying fiscal risks arising from economic shocks, revenue volatility, expenditure pressures, financial markets, natural disasters, and public-sector financial exposures.

• Application of fiscal stress testing to evaluate the effects of interest-rate increases, exchange-rate movements, growth shocks, inflation, and revenue deterioration.

• Assessment of fiscal risk matrices, sensitivity analysis, early-warning indicators, risk registers, and management actions designed to strengthen fiscal resilience.

• Audit techniques for evaluating whether fiscal risk assessments are sufficiently comprehensive, evidence-based, regularly updated, and integrated into financial planning.

Module 11: Debt Data, Information Systems and Analytical Auditing

• Evaluation of debt management information systems, debt databases, financial reporting systems, interfaces, access controls, and data integrity safeguards.

• Use of data analytics to examine debt populations, identify reconciliation differences, detect unusual transactions, analyse repayment patterns, and validate debt information.

• Assessment of data quality, completeness, accuracy, consistency, timeliness, and reconciliation between debt records, accounting systems, treasury records, and financial statements.

• Emerging applications of automation and artificial intelligence for debt analytics, forecasting, risk monitoring, anomaly detection, and continuous fiscal assurance.

Module 12: Debt Transparency, Reporting and Fiscal Accountability

• Auditing public debt reports, fiscal risk statements, financial statements, budget documents, debt statistics, and other public accountability disclosures.

• Evaluation of completeness and accuracy in reporting debt balances, guarantees, contingent liabilities, debt service costs, borrowing terms, and fiscal exposures.

• Assessment of transparency practices involving public access to debt information, reporting timeliness, disclosure quality, classification consistency, and accountability mechanisms.

• Identification of reporting gaps, unexplained discrepancies, incomplete disclosures, and weaknesses that could limit informed fiscal decision-making and oversight.

Module 13: Debt Restructuring, Refinancing and Complex Financing Arrangements

• Audit approaches for debt restructuring, refinancing, rescheduling, maturity extensions, debt swaps, buybacks, and other liability management transactions.

• Evaluation of restructuring assumptions, financial terms, transaction costs, approvals, legal documentation, accounting treatment, and expected fiscal benefits.

• Assessment of complex financing arrangements involving derivatives, structured instruments, blended finance, public-private partnerships, and innovative borrowing mechanisms.

• Identification of refinancing concentrations, hidden costs, contractual risks, and other financial exposures that may increase long-term fiscal vulnerability.

Module 14: Fraud, Irregularities and Public Debt Control Failures

• Identification of fraud and corruption risks associated with debt issuance, borrowing approvals, refinancing transactions, debt servicing, guarantees, and financial intermediaries.

• Use of transaction testing, analytical procedures, confirmations, document examination, and red-flag analysis to identify potentially improper debt-related activities.

• Root cause analysis of recurring debt control weaknesses involving governance, system limitations, inadequate oversight, poor segregation of duties, and weak documentation.

• Audit responses to suspected irregularities, including evidence preservation, escalation, investigation interfaces, financial impact assessment, recovery, and corrective action monitoring.

Module 15: Public Debt Audit Reporting, Recommendations and Follow-Up

• Development of high-quality debt audit findings connecting conditions, criteria, causes, consequences, risk exposure, evidence, and practical management recommendations.

• Techniques for communicating complex debt sustainability, fiscal risk, borrowing, and contingent liability issues to senior decision-makers and oversight institutions.

• Development of recommendations addressing immediate control deficiencies, systemic debt governance weaknesses, risk exposures, reporting gaps, and underlying root causes.

• Follow-up methodologies for tracking agreed actions, validating implementation, reassessing residual fiscal risks, and determining whether corrective measures remain effective.

Module 16: Emerging Public Debt Risks and Advanced Fiscal Assurance

• Emerging debt risks associated with climate finance, green bonds, sustainability-linked borrowing, digital finance, geopolitical developments, and changing international financing conditions.

• Artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, automated risk monitoring, and advanced modelling techniques for forward-looking public debt and fiscal risk assurance.

• Cybersecurity and operational resilience risks affecting debt management systems, financial market infrastructure, digital payment channels, and sensitive debt information.

• Development of advanced public debt audit strategies integrating fiscal sustainability, technology, transparency, contingent liabilities, financial resilience, and long-term risk intelligence.

Training Approach

This course will be delivered by our skilled trainers who have vast knowledge and experience as expert professionals in the fields. The course is taught in English and through a mix of theory, practical activities, group discussion and case studies. Course manuals and additional training materials will be provided to the participants upon completion of the training.

Tailor-Made Course

This course can also be tailor-made to meet organization requirement. For further inquiries, please contact us on: Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com Tel: +254 721 331 808

Training Venue 

The training will be held at our Upskill Training Centre. We also offer training for a group (at a discount of 10% to 50%) at requested location all over the world. The Onsite course fee covers the course tuition, training materials, two break refreshments, buffet lunch, airport transfers, Upskill gift package, and guided tour.

Visa application, travel expenses, dinners, accommodation, insurance, and other personal expenses are catered by the participant

Certification

Participants will be issued with Upskill certificate upon completion of this course.

Airport Pickup and Accommodation

Airport pickup and accommodation is arranged upon request. For booking contact our Training Coordinator through Email: training@upskilldevelopment.com, +254 721 331 808

Terms of Payment:

Unless otherwise agreed between the two parties’ payment of the course fee should be done 3 working days before commencement of the training so as to enable us to prepare better.