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Since the early 1980s there has been an explosion of auditing activity in the United Kingdom and North America. In addition to financial audits there are now medical audits, technology audits, value for money audits, environmental audits, quality audits, teaching audits, and many others. Why has ...

Since the early 1980s there has been an explosion of auditing activity in the United Kingdom and North America. In addition to financial audits there are now medical audits, technology audits, value for money audits, environmental audits, quality audits, teaching audits, and many others. Why has this happened? What does it mean when a society invests so heavily in an industry of checking and when more and more individuals find themselves subject to formal scrutiny? The Audit Society argues that the rise of auditing has its roots in political demands for accountability and control. At the heart of a new administrative style internal control systems have begun to play an important public role and individual and organizational performance has been increasingly formalized and made auditable. Michael Power argues that the new demands and expectations of audits live uneasily with their operational capabilities. Not only is the manner in which they produce assurance and accountability open to question but also, by imposing their own values, audits often have unintended and dysfunctional consequences for the audited organization.

This book explains, from a public law perspective, the constitutional purpose and significance of audit, a topic which has been largely neglected, and casts light on important aspects of accountability in the British system of government. The book suggests that audit, as an accountability mechanism ...

This book explains, from a public law perspective, the constitutional purpose and significance of audit, a topic which has been largely neglected, and casts light on important aspects of accountability in the British system of government. The book suggests that audit, as an accountability mechanism, has been underplayed to date and that greater significance should be attributed to its role in delivering both democratic accountability and, within government, managerial accountability. The focus of the book is central government audit in Britain, but the constitutional role of audit at a local level and at a European Union level is also considered. The book begins by explaining, in a non -technical way, the basic concepts of accounting and audit, and sets audit in its historical context. The different types of audit and the institutional framework within which audit is conducted are then analysed. Any shortcomings in each area are identified and suggestions for change are explored. The constitutional significance of the changes to the role of audit that are currently taking place are analysed, as are the effects of developments, such as the creation of agencies, contracting-out, and more recently, resource accounting and budgeting and devolution, on the constitutional role of audit. The fundamental principles, both institutional and substantive, of public sector audit are identified and new tasks that audit could fulfil at central government level are proposed.

Performance audit, as practised by national audit offices, is a relatively recent and rapidly developing set of activities. Auditors claim to have moved beyond issues of compliance and regularity and to be able directly to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of public programmes, projects ...

Performance audit, as practised by national audit offices, is a relatively recent and rapidly developing set of activities. Auditors claim to have moved beyond issues of compliance and regularity and to be able directly to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of public programmes, projects, and institutions. These are developments with considerable implications for both democratic accountablility and managerial efficiency. Until now they have received little independent scrutiny, but in this book an international team of researchers analyses the growth of performance audit in five countries: France, Finland, The Netherlands, Sweden, and the UK. It is argued that audit offices face a series of strategic choices, and that in different countries they have thus far chosen somewhat different trajectories.