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

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fredrik Svärdsten
Keyword(s):  
Front Stage ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
Audit Reports

scholarly journals IS THE ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE, ENVIRONMENTAL ACCOUNTING, AGENCY COST IMPACT ON COMPANY PERFORMANCE? (CASE STUDY OF REGIONAL WATER COMPANIES IN INDONESIA)

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 39
Author(s):  
Hendra Setiawan
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Performance ◽  
Negative Impact ◽  
Positive Impact ◽  
Agency Cost ◽  
Environmental Accounting ◽  
Primary Data ◽  
Company Performance ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
Audit Reports ◽  
The Impact

<p>Companies that want to continue, exist and thrive in this day must make an increase in company performance. The performance referred to here is not just performance according to the company wishes but in accordance with customer needs. Factors that influence the company's current performance are environmental factors and agency cost. This study will analyze the impact of environmental performance, environmental accounting and agency cost on company performance. The target population of this research is the local water company (PDAM) of 34 PDAMs out of 368 PDAMs which were evaluated based on PDAM performance audit reports up to 2016 conducted by BPKP and financial audits by the Public Accountant Office (KAP). Data collection techniques are primary data through questionnaires that are shared with PDAM stakeholders and secondary data on PDAM performance audit reports. The results showed that environmental performance had a significant negative impact on PDAM company performance because of its impact value - 0.334 and the t-statistic was 3.589. Meanwhile, environmental accounting and agency cost have a significant positive impact on the performance of PDAM where the impact values are 0.4692 and 0.3816 and their t-statistics values are 7.3769 and 3.522, respectively. The PDAM must pay attention to its environmental performance impactively and efficiently by always paying attention to environmental accounting and agency costs.</p>

scholarly journals Are Performance Audits Useful? A Comparison of EU Practices

2016 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 431-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourdes Torres ◽  
Ana Yetano ◽  
Vicente Pina
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
American Way ◽  
Anglo American ◽  
Audit Reports ◽  
The Impact

Performance audits allow audit institutions to contribute to the improvement of the economy, efficiency, and/or effectiveness of public sector entities through the recommendations of their reports. To assess the impact of the performance audits carried out by EU Supreme and Regional Audit Institutions, this article analyzes whether these recommendations are implemented in practice or not. The results show that there are two main ways in which the recommendations included in the performance audit reports produce an impact: the Anglo-American way, based on auditee actions and follow-up processes, and the Germanic way, based on parliamentary action.

scholarly journals WORLD TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXPERT AND ANALYTICAL ACTIVITY IN ASSESSMENTS AND CRITERIA

THE BULLETIN ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (388) ◽  
pp. 223-231
Author(s):  
Sembieva L.M., ◽  
◽  
Tazhbenova G., ◽  
Orynbekova G., ◽  
Mandrazhi Z., ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Federation ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
Similar Work ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Expert Analysis ◽  
Executive Decision Making ◽  
The Russian Federation ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Audit Reports

World experience indicates that the implementation of expert analysis, largely, affects the level of high-quality management decisions, as well as the level of executive decision-making in the budget and financial sphere. In addition, these measures contribute to increasing the degree of responsibility, transparency and accountability in the activities of state bodies. The authors studied the world practice of conducting expert and analytical activities, evaluating the effectiveness of the application of expert and analytical activities, developing methodological recommendations for conducting similar work in the Republic of Kazakhstan. The study examined the experience of four countries, such as Germany, the USA, Great Britain and the Russian Federation. The expert-analytical activity of VOGA in all the countries listed, except for the Russian Federation, is not legally regulated. There are no relevant norms in the laws governing the activities of VOGA. In all of the above countries, except for Russia, expert and analytical activities are not methodologically regulated. The rules, procedural standards, and audit requirements do not provide for a methodology for expert analysis. The study of documents arising from the activities of the SAIs of the above countries, such as audit reports, analytical reports, annual reports (except for the Russian Federation) allows us to conclude that expert analysis in the above countries is carried out to a greater extent during the performance audit. The experience of the abovementioned countries, as well as the study of ISSAI standards related to the implementation of the performance audit, indicates that the full-scale implementation of the performance audit can lead to the absence of the need for additional expert analytical work. Since in accordance with ISSAI 300, the performance audit itself delivers a new information, knowledge and value.

scholarly journals Possibilities of Performance Audit to Increase the Transparency of Activities in the Municipality

2021 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-76
Author(s):  
Laima Liukinevičienė ◽  
Audra Jokubauskienė
Keyword(s):  
Public Sector ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Control Function ◽  
Evaluation Criteria ◽  
Evaluation Process ◽  
Theoretical Concept ◽  
Transparency International ◽  
Expert Interview ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
Audit Reports

The article analyzes the implementation of the transparency principle in implementing the performance audit in the municipality. The performance audit is qualified as a specific control function in order to objectively assess the functionality of public sector entities in terms of economy, efficiency and effectiveness, initiating operational and governance advancement. It is important to investigate this object in municipalities due to the following factors: 1) according to the assessment of the transparency of Lithuanian municipalities published in 2019 by “Transparency International” of the Lithuanian branch, municipalities have become more transparent as well as the recommendations were provided to municipalities; 2) Recent research conducted in foreign countries shows broader audit opportunities for initiating positive change in organizations. The aim of the research: having established the principle of transparency as one of the most important indications of good governance, to provide for the possibilities of increasing the transparency of municipal activities during the performance audits. Research methods: analysis of scientific literature, the content of documents, qualitative analysis of the expert interview and the content of the material collected during it, and categorization.The analyzed sources show how during these two decades of developing the theoretical concept of good governance the importance of the principle of transparency has grown, it has become one of the most important features of good governance; the concept of implementing transparency in public sector organizations has developed as well. Today, the principle of operational transparency is implemented both through strictly formalized government activities and by involving citizens in public governance that requires much honesty, competencies and non-traditional solutions of civil servants. How can a performance audit contribute to this? In order to gain new insights, experts were interviewed: researchers and practicians. Recommendations from external evaluators on transparency in municipalities were used to develop the guidelines for the expert interviews. The research revealed that in municipalities it is important to create greater opportunities for the citizens to participate in monitoring and involvement in decision-making. The directions for increasing the transparency of municipal activities through performance audits that have been highlighted by experts are as follows: 1) periodic performance transparency audits by including constantly updated performance transparency criteria in the audit; 2) creation of a non-corruption organization; 3) increasing the transparency of budgeting and implementation; 4) submission of budget reports with audit conclusions; 5) attention to the clarity of the content of audit reports, diversity of accessibility; 6) periodic monitoring of the effectiveness of audit findings; 7) integration of audits of social responsibility activities into other forms of performance evaluation, thus not increasing the number of audits but seeking greater integration of the principle of transparency. The experts proposed transparency evaluation criteria that can be easily integrated into the evaluation process.

The contents of the National Audit Office of Finland performance audits, 2001–2016

2020 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-66
Author(s):  
Pertti Ahonen ◽  
Juha Koljonen
Keyword(s):  
Future Research ◽  
Institutional Characteristics ◽  
National Audit ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Comprehensive Examination ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
Performance Auditing ◽  
The Government ◽  
Audit Reports ◽  
Practical Implications

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to provide a qualitative, computationally assisted examination of prominent content patterns in the 2001–2016 National Audit Office of Finland (NAOF) performance audit reports and foremost changes in these patterns. Design/methodology/approach Without ex ante researcher decisions on which content elements are important, the authors use computational content analysis of topic modelling for detecting content patterns and their changes in the performance audit reports. Findings In the content patterns, professional effectiveness auditing stands out, whereas efficiency auditing is more weakly present. Other content patterns correspond to the NAOF institutional position and its audit mandate, the institutional characteristics of Finland’s public sector, and independent NAOF decisions in orienting its work. The authors can discern both ascendant, ascendant and stabler content patterns. Research limitations/implications As the paper emphasises textual analysis, examining from where changes in the content patterns derive is secondary. Implications for both more intensive and extensive future research are drawn. Practical implications The authors argue that together with other approaches the approach has potential in monitoring Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) performance auditing in the level of its contents. Social implications Knowing how an SAI orients its performance auditing has potential to support SAI monitoring by stakeholders – Parliament, the government, the citizens and others. Originality/value This is a comprehensive examination of the content patterns of the performance audit reports of an SAI since the 2001 introduction of its present institutional position.

Reconciling Audit and Evaluation?

2015 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Stephenson
Keyword(s):  
Evaluation Studies ◽  
Added Value ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
European Court ◽  
Efficiency And Effectiveness ◽  
Value Judgements ◽  
Performance Audit ◽  
Future Policy ◽  
Audit Reports

In the last twenty years, the European Court of Auditors has placed increasing importance on the production of “special reports” examining the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of EU spending (the three “E”s). This institutional focus on performance audit, alongside traditional financial and compliance audit, has occurred at a time when the European Union is increasingly evaluating its own policies and programmes, under political pressure to demonstrate their added value. With performance audit, the EU's external auditors make value judgements on what was achieved through the EU budget, arguably bringing a greater political dimension to the Court as it works to deliver conclusions and recommendations meant to assist the legislature (European Parliament) in carrying out its scrutiny role and the executive (European Commission) in shaping better future policy. This raises questions about how financial accountability is interpreted, and whether it depends on the quality of audit reports or on the forums to which they are delivered, and subsequently, how they act upon them. This article analyses the factors that explain the increased use of special reports by the Court, questioning if they resemble evaluation studies. It examines their focus and impact, as well as the institutional challenges implicit in performance audit.

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