Quality Matters: Seeking Confidence in Evaluating, Auditing, and Performance Reporting by John Winston Mayne

Author:John Winston Mayne [Mayne, John Winston]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Public Policy, Political Science, General
ISBN: 9781351322423
Google: HHx_DwAAQBAJ
Amazon: B07LCV6X8R
Goodreads: 43266884
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2018-12-12T00:00:00+00:00

Part 2

Performance Audits

9

“Neat and Tidy…and 100% Correct”: Assuring the Quality of Supreme Audit Institution Performance Audit1 Work

Jeremy Lonsdale and John Mayne

Introduction

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) throughout the world have increasingly considered the performance of public bodies as part of their examination of the use of public money. Whereas once concerns were primarily with regularity and propriety, during the last fifty years and, in particular, the last twenty years, interest in economy, efficiency, and effectiveness have taken center stage as governments have sought to get more for less (Barzelay 1996; Pollitt et al. 1999).

Such developments indicate an expansion of the audit perspective, and hold out the prospect of audit making more of a contribution to effecting change in society. As one observer has put it, SAIs have “never before been so closely involved in the management of public bodies” (Morin 2001). They now prepare a plethora of reports making recommendations for improvements to programs, services, and administrative practices. At the same time, these developments raise issues about the nature of SAIs themselves, such as whether they have the relevant skills, whether there might be a need for different reporting strategies and, indeed, different approaches to auditing. They also increase the need for more subjective judgments and for care, so as not to jeopardize their independence and allow themselves to be drawn into politics. And, importantly for this chapter, they also raise issues about the quality of the work of the SAI itself.

These performance audit reports are significant documents. They can cover most aspects of public expenditure in countries where they are produced. They are publicly available, and may form the basis for a parliamentary hearing, or influence or spark a public debate. They may provoke government action, particularly where there is a requirement on the executive to respond to the recommendations. And they may be quoted extensively in the press. Thus, how the quality of this material is assured is of considerable significance.

Our research shows that SAIs have developed a range of approaches to provide assurance about quality throughout the audit process. These approaches may be built into the way the SAI is organized and run (recruitment, training), be part of the performance audit process (reference panels, use of outside experts, advisory committees), or be part of a quality review process after work is complete (such as external “cold” reviews, client and auditee questionnaires). They are also seen in the ways in which factual accuracy checks are built into the process of finalizing draft reports.

We have focused attention on six SAIs, each of which has well developed performance audit work, and which have given significant consideration to quality assurance issues. They are: the Algemene Rekenkamer in the Netherlands, the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) in Canada, the Office of the Controller and Auditor General (OCAG) in New Zealand, the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), the Riksrevisonsverket (RRV) in Sweden, and the National Audit Office (NAO) in the United Kingdom.2 They are not therefore representative of the range of SAIs undertaking performance audit.

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