Premium
Auditors‐General: Cuckoos in the Managerialist Nest?
Author(s) -
Mulgan Richard
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
australian journal of public administration
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.524
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1467-8500
pISSN - 0313-6647
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8500.00206
Subject(s) - audit , managerialism , accountability , scrutiny , outsourcing , accounting , business , odds , performance audit , public administration , public relations , political science , law , joint audit , internal audit , medicine , logistic regression
The role of Auditors‐General has expanded in recent decades, particularly with the development of performance auditing. Performance auditing originated in the managerialist concern for monitoring results, but in some respects Auditors‐General have found themselves at odds with managerialism, particularly where outsourcing and privatisation have reduced the level of public accountability. Performance auditing has also increased the potential for Auditors‐General to clash openly with elected governments, though for the most part they confine their scrutiny to the activities of public servants. Auditors‐General have more authority to confront governments over matters of propriety than over efficiency and effectiveness issues.