Resistance to Control—Norwegian Ministries’ and Agencies’ Reactions to Performance Audit

Reichborn-Kjennerud, Kristin

doi:10.1007/s11115-013-0247-6

Cited by 19 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Though substance auditing may take many forms, and may concern many different aspects of an organization's activities, a common way of describing substance auditing is by referring to auditing of the three Es (see, e.g. Bringselius, ; Pollitt et al., ; Reichborn‐Kjennerud, ). Therefore, audits of the three Es were considered to be relevant examples of substance auditing in this study.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One common and well‐recognized attempt to narrow the focus of substance auditing is found in the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions’ (INTOSAI) (, ) guidelines, which suggest that a PA should establish whether public organizations operate in a manner that keeps costs low (Economy), makes the most of available resources (Efficiency), and achieves its stipulated goals (Effectiveness) (see also, e.g. Pollitt et al., ; Reichborn‐Kjennerud, ). However, even though the concepts of Economy, Efficiency and Effectiveness (the three Es) may clarify the scope of substance auditing to some extent, the concepts are but a perspective of the ephemeral and by no means a readily auditable performance phenomenon.…”

Section: The Challenge Of Substance Auditing – Insights From the Litementioning

confidence: 99%

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The ‘front stage’ of substance auditing: A study of how substance auditing is presented in performance audit reports

Svärdsten¹

2019

Financ Acc Manag

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Performance audit is a practice with a potentially high degree of democratic and political relevance. Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) have the authority to determine whether the undertakings in central government ‘are working’; therefore, SAIs tend to be regarded as important guardians of transparency and ‘good’ public sector performance. For this purpose, audits of ‘substance’ are regarded as crucial by both the research community and the INTOSAI. Still, the literature on performance audit concludes that substance audits are rare, although they do exist. One explanation for this is that substance auditing can be a risky endeavour for the auditors, since the lack of generic accounting standards for ‘good’ public sector performance makes the performance audit reports vulnerable to criticism. The aim of this paper is to contribute to our understanding of substance auditing by detailing the ways in which such audits are presented in performance audit reports. Thus, the paper focuses its analysis on the ‘front stage’ of substance auditing and finds that the auditors rarely choose to stand on the front stage alone. Instead, they regularly support their authority by relying on other authorities, and when such authorities are lacking, the auditors are reluctant to present judgements in terms of ‘good’ (or poor) performance. In such cases, this paper suggests that the democratic relevance of the audits can be questioned.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Challenge Of Substance Auditing – Insights From the Litementioning

confidence: 99%

The ‘front stage’ of substance auditing: A study of how substance auditing is presented in performance audit reports

Svärdsten¹

2019

Financ Acc Manag

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“…Furthermore, earlier research found that actors “tend to be become more negative if they are exposed to many performance audits” (Reichborn‐Kjennerud, , p. 28). The interviews carried out for the current article showed that many ministries and governmental organizations have specific people assigned to deal with audits and ombudsman investigations.…”

Section: Recommendations For Further Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact of supreme audit institutions and ombudsmen in Belgium and The Netherlands

Acker

Bouckaert

2018

Financ Acc Manag

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This article investigates the impact of the audit and ombud process on the implementation of recommendations made by supreme audit institutions and ombudsmen in Belgium and the Netherlands. Based on previous findings, the focus lies on influential internal and external factors in determining the effectiveness of the audit and ombud investigations. The article concludes that the impact of the process and factors often mentioned in the literature are less significant than found in other research. Political factors, such as coalition agreements and politicians trying to save face, seem to be much more influential in explaining the implementation rate.

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“…Research on the impact and value of performance auditing on public sector organisations (Bawole & Ibrahim, 2015;Raudla, Taro, Agu, & Douglas, 2015) has been a leading field of inquiry in recent years. Whether performance auditing has an impact on the improvement of auditee entities (Yang, 2012), its usefulness in the eyes of auditees (Reichborn-Kjennerud, 2015), the consequences of performance auditing (Reichborn-Kjennerud & Vabo, 2017), overall impact of performance auditing as a result of the implementation of audit recommendations (Hoque & Pearson, 2018), changes it brings in the audited organisations (Morin, 2014), and the contributing factors for those changes (Siddiquee, 2014), still merit further research from the aspect of follow-up on performance auditing issues. Therefore, in ascertaining follow-up effectiveness, one must also consider the practices by which it is being governed.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effectiveness of Follow-Up on Performance Auditing Issues in Practice: A Governance Network Perspective

Umor

Zakaria

Sulaiman

2020

AJAP

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This study discloses the relationship between governance arrangements and network types (networking) and the effectiveness of follow-up practice. Design/ Methodology/ Approach: Governance network theory (GNT) was utilised together with the interpretative phenomenological approach. Fifty-five governance actors in the Malaysian public sector that consist of the auditors, auditees, regulators and other relevant actors were divided into four groups. Their stories and experiences collected via interviews constitute the main data for this study. Research finding: This study noted three phases of follow-up strategies which are pre; during; and post-tabling of the Auditor-General's (AG) report in Parliament. This follow-up practice involves a new way of governing with the involvement of many actors. It is not limited to auditors and auditees. Data from this study evidenced that networking approaches based on three types of network, namely coordinative, cooperative and collaborative, have enhanced follow-up practice as evident in the dissemination of punitive audit issues to the right actors for further action. Theoretical contribution/ Originality: This research has provided evidence that study of followup on performance audit issues in practice encapsulates social behaviour, societal governance, and network perspective and produces stimulating results. Practitioner/ Policy implication: Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) must find a way to reduce the hierarchical nature of its work by entrenching its strategy, structure and process to ease governance arrangements and networking between various actors outside the SAI organisation in resolving the audit issues raised in the AG report through effective follow-up practice. Research limitation/ Implication: The researcher did not select performance auditing issues individually per se to see how each issue with punitive elements is addressed through a followup process. In order to perform in-depth research, researchers should select punitive issues and execute case study research.

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Resistance to Control—Norwegian Ministries’ and Agencies’ Reactions to Performance Audit

Cited by 19 publications

References 43 publications

The ‘front stage’ of substance auditing: A study of how substance auditing is presented in performance audit reports

The ‘front stage’ of substance auditing: A study of how substance auditing is presented in performance audit reports

The impact of supreme audit institutions and ombudsmen in Belgium and The Netherlands

Effectiveness of Follow-Up on Performance Auditing Issues in Practice: A Governance Network Perspective

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