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Should Non‐Financial Performance Information be Audited? The Case ofPublic Service Agreements in UK Government
Author(s) -
Bowerman Mary,
Humphrey Christopher
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
australian accounting review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.551
H-Index - 36
eISSN - 1835-2561
pISSN - 1035-6908
DOI - 10.1111/j.1835-2561.2002.tb00388.x
Subject(s) - audit , accountability , accounting , joint audit , business , performance audit , context (archaeology) , internal audit , information technology audit , scope (computer science) , service (business) , statutory law , government (linguistics) , audit plan , public relations , political science , marketing , paleontology , linguistics , philosophy , computer science , law , biology , programming language
A growing level of controversy surrounds the right of the UK National Audit Office (NAO) to audit public service agreements (PSAs) – documents which detail the performance, against targets, of central government departments. The NAO has not been granted a statutory role, although an independent official review of accountability and audit in UK central government has recently concluded that the external validation of departmental information systems is a crucial first step towards validation of key published data. In the context of growing academic concern over the scale and achievements of (public) audit, it is pertinent to ask whether such a potential extension in the rights and scope of the NAO's audit work is necessary or likely to enhance public accountability and improve the performance of government departments and audit bodies.