Politicisation of the audit process: The case of politically affiliated auditors in Swedish local governments

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate and analyse how the internal audit process as well as the outcome of that process is used for politically reasons. This will be accomplished by applying the political theory of politicisation to the analysis of the internal audit process within Swedish local authorities. By applying the theory of politicisation, this study contributes to our understanding of how the internal audit process is open for the use of (de‐)politicisation as strategies to influence stakeholders’ perception of the audit process as well as the identity and legitimacy of the auditee. Especially interesting is perhaps how politicisation in combination with de‐politicisation can be used to either put emphasis on issues of political relevance or avoid addressing issues that are politically sensitive. Previous research on auditing in public sector organisations has predominately focussed on audit independence and the role of auditors. By applying a new perspective to the role of auditing in public sector organisations and by focussing on the process and the outcome instead of function, this study increases our understanding of auditing in politically governed organisations.

Public sector audit in contemporary society: A short review and introduction

“…Organisation of the audit, for example, conforming to a managerialist model (Tillema & ter Bogt, ), the communication and dissemination of the audit information (González‐Díaz, García‐Fernández, & López‐Díaz, ), or having politicians as lay‐auditors (Thomasson, ), may influence whether the audit information is used and its relevance and independence. There is obviously big variation in the organisation of the audit between many countries and across tiers of government (Pierre & Licht, ).…”

Exploring past, present and future trends in public sector auditing research: a literature review

“…Changes in the performance audit and VFM auditing (Roberts and Pollitt, 1994) were analysed by Jacobs (1998), in which the changing role of VFM was highlighted as illustrating the contested nature of accounting technology. Several authors published articles in the 2000s analysing the significant influence of VFM auditing on government policies that have consequently changed the structure, organisation and provision of public services (Lapsley and Pong, 2000;Morin, 2001Morin, , 2004Mulgan, 2001;Skaerbaek, 2009;Barrett, 2010;Kells, 2011;Reichborn-Kjennerud, 2014a;Raudla et al, 2016;Funnell, 2015;Reichborn-Kjennerud and Vabo, 2017;Mir et al, 2017;Reichborn-Kjennerud and Johnsen, 2018;Adi and Dutil, 2018;Thomasson, 2018;Nyikos and So os, 2018;Torres et al, 2019).…”

“…We also call for research into the role, identity, professional discretion, autonomy and image of auditors at different government levels (central, regional and local) and international organisations. Studies that discuss how auditors are selected, appointed and compensated in public sector organisations and their associated decentralised entities would be of value to the field (Radcliffe, 2012;Thomasson, 2018).…”

Internal auditing in the public sector: a systematic literature review and future research agenda

“…3.2.4.1 Governance. In this category, papers examine IA's contribution to good governance, focusing on various themes such as the adoption of corporate-governance best practices in the public sector (e.g., Reinstein et al, 2014), the protection of stakeholders (e.g., Alam et al, 2019), the maintenance of legitimacy and trust (e.g., Thomasson, 2018) and compliance with IA guidelines and its impact on transparency and accountability (e.g., Jones and Beattie, 2015;. What can be inferred from these studies is that IA guidelines could strengthen the principal-agent relationship.…”