Risk Score For Contract Prioritization In Auditing: A Multicriteria Approach With Ahp

The public procurement process in Brazil is characterized by high values and complexity, requiring compliance with stringent legal procedures. In 2022, the total value of federally approved purchases reached R$ 167 billion. Se-lecting criteria for evaluating contracts and suppliers is crucial to identify and prioritize contracts with a higher probability of irregularities, considering the limited workforce in internal control units. This study proposes the im-plementation of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to prioritize audits of public contracts, offering a structured approach based on criteria such as risk related to the supplier company and its partners, contract attributes, and rel-evant alerts from external regulatory bodies. The objective is to develop an Audit Risk Score to guide the allocation of audit resources to the contracts with the highest risk and impact. The proposed methodology integrates quantitative and qualitative analyses, aiming for an efficient allocation of in-ternal audit resources and promoting the principles of accountability and transparency.