On the legitimacy and apoliticality of public sector performance audit: exploratory evidence from Canada and Denmark

PurposeThe increasing uptake of performance auditing (PA), which entails both the facilitation and the control of government policies, has seriously challenged state auditors' claims that they are apolitical. This article aims to understand how supreme audit institutions (SAIs) operate to maintain and nurture the political neutrality and legitimacy of their PA.Design/methodology/approachThe authors draw on Suchman's typology on legitimacy (1995) to analyze the PA reports of two countries with a long history of both performance auditing and accusations of political interference, namely Canada and Denmark. Documentary analysis and interview methods are employed.FindingsThis study shows how the two SAIs have been pursuing pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy through the professionalization and standardization of both the form and the content of their PA reports. Engaging and maintaining the dialogue with the audited administration, triangulating recognized social science methods, and emphasizing the “public interest” basis of PA reflect some of the tools adopted to navigate the “grey zone” between objective, relevant and politically sensitive audits.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper's explorative approach limits the possibility for robust testing of the causal forces impinging on SAIs' choices of legitimation strategies. Nevertheless, variations between the Canadian and Danish SAIs in the strategic use of some legitimacy tools such as the media suggest a difference in the role of Public Accounts Committee in the two countries that can be investigated in future research.Originality/valueMuch research exists questioning the political neutrality of PA, yet there has not been much discussion on how SAIs have been able to develop and preserve the prevalent legitimacy of their PA amid the criticism. More specifically, our research reveals the tendency of both the Canadian and Danish SAIs to strategically underline the “public interest” dimension of their performance audits in an attempt to increase both their legitimacy and political neutrality.

Performance auditing and neoliberal governmentality: future research directions

Purpose This paper aims to interpret the role and professional issues of public sector performance auditing (PA) as a mechanism of neoliberal governmentality in the New Public Management (NPM) era by drawing on a Foucauldian conceptual lens to chart directions for future research. Design/methodology/approach The study uses the Foucauldian concepts of visibility and identity to interpret PA against the background of neoliberal imperatives of public sector management. Findings As the growing emphasis on PA in recent decades can be understood as driven by the concurrent development of neoliberal and NPM rationalities, the relatively underexploited concepts of visibility and identity allow further inquiry into important PA issues. This paper identifies avenues for future research under the following three themes: the issue of visibility in neoliberal governmentality and potential for auditors-general to expand the domain of influence of National Audit Offices through the PA role; the potential for PA as a unified distinct specialisation; and the neoliberal idea of professional identity as the individual expert and its interplay with the potential emergence of PA as a distinct function within the accounting profession. Research limitations/implications This conceptual paper is anticipated to stimulate future PA research. Key areas in this respect include the position and authority afforded to PA and the possibility of transformation in auditors’ conception of their professional worldview. Originality/value This paper charts direction for future research by interpreting PA using Foucauldian concepts of visibility and identity that remain to be exploited in PA research.

A Data-Centric Approach to Improve Machine Learning Model’s Performance in Production

Machine learning teaches computers to think in a similar way to how humans do. An ML models work by exploring data and identifying patterns with minimal human intervention. A supervised ML model learns by mapping an input to an output based on labeled examples of input-output (X, y) pairs. Moreover, an unsupervised ML model works by discovering patterns and information that was previously undetected from unlabelled data. As an ML project is an extensively iterative process, there is always a need to change the ML code/model and datasets. However, when an ML model achieves 70-75% of accuracy, then the code or algorithm most probably works fine. Nevertheless, in many cases, e.g., medical or spam detection models, 75% accuracy is too low to deploy in production. A medical model used in susceptible tasks such as detecting certain diseases must have an accuracy label of 98-99%. Furthermore, that is a big challenge to achieve. In that scenario, we may have a good working model, so a model-centric approach may not help much achieve the desired accuracy threshold. However, improving the dataset will improve the overall performance of the model. Improving the dataset does not always require bringing more and more data into the dataset. Improving the quality of the data by establishing a reasonable baseline level of performance, labeler consistency, error analysis, and performance auditing will thoroughly improve the model's accuracy. This review paper focuses on the data-centric approach to improve the performance of a production machine learning model.

Audit Expectation GAP in The Public Sector of The Gambia

In the private sector, the audit expectations deficit is a big concern. The audit expectations divide, on the other hand, is a new problem in the public sector that has received little attention from researchers. Just a few studies on the audit expectations deficit in the public sector have been conducted so far in the sense of financial audit. In the background of the above, this study centered on the audit expectations difference. The study was motivated by the importance of the financial audit feature in the Gambian public sector, as well as recent developments related to this type of audit in the country (such as rising expectations among users and associated problems in practice). As a result, the study aims to assess whether or not there is a difference in audit expectations in the Gambian public sector. According to the results of this report, there is an audit expectations deficit in the Gambian public sector when it comes to performance auditing. Interviews indicate that there is a broad gap in audit standards on several auditing topics. These include fraud detection exercises, management, executive and other parties' impact on auditors, audit report format, and widening the audit mandate to include policy merits.

Auditoría de desempeño en los emprendimientos: siete dimensiones analíticas

Los emprendimientos son organizaciones económicas con impactos favorables en las economías nacionales, en contextos jurídicos específicos que no facilitan el ejercicio efectivo de la Auditoría de Desempeño, de acuerdo con las exigencias metodológicas que ésta emplea. De ahí que el objetivo esté relacionado con la revisión bibliográfica que facilite la identificación de los diferentes enfoques metodológicos que fundamentan las siete dimensiones cualitativas que facilitarían el diseño de procedimientos específicos para la ejecución de una Auditoría de Desempeño en los emprendimientos, que puedan ser utilizados por los auditores en su trabajo técnico – profesional en este tipo de entidades económicas. Las siete dimensiones cualitativas identificadas por los autores se refieren a: la gestión de riesgos de auditoría, conocimiento del sujeto a auditar, evaluación del control interno, desempeño: tributario; contable; competitivo y ético. Palabras clave: Auditoría de desempeño, auditores, evaluación, tributario ABSTRACT The undertakings are economic organizations with favorable impacts on national economies, in specific legal contexts that do not facilitate the effective exercise of Performance Auditing, in accordance with the methodological requirements that it uses. Hence, the objective is related to the bibliographic review that facilitates the identification of the different methodological approaches that support the seven qualitative dimensions that would facilitate the design of specific procedures for the execution of a Performance Audit in enterprises, which can be used by the auditors in their technical - professional work in this type of economic entity. The seven qualitative dimensions identified by the authors refer to: audit risk management, knowledge of the subject to be audited, evaluation of internal control, tax, accounting, competitive and ethical. Keywords: Entrepreneurship, performance audit, auditors, evaluation, tributary.

Accountability in the Ghanaian local governance structure: probing the role of external auditing

The roles of external auditors have been under the spotlight due to the strategic positions they occupy to ensure accountability by public sector managers. This study examines the role of the external auditors in the accountability regime of the Ghanaian local governance structure. The study analyzed the annual reports of the Auditor General (AG) on all the metropolitan, municipal, and district assemblies (MMDAs) in Ghana from 2010 to 2018 through a content analysis method. The analysis revealed that Ghanaian audit activities had mainly focused on internal control effectiveness, cash management, contract management, revenue management, expenditure management, payroll management, and procurement management. However, the study found that the focus of the external auditors kept expanding as the years progressed. The evidence showed that the auditors excluded performance audits in their scope of work. The findings of the study further revealed that the MMDAs had recurring, repetitive, and common audit queries, comprising cash; procurement and stores; contract and tax irregularities. Besides, the audit recommendations were in response to the specific audit queries on the various financial and operational irregularities. Based on the analysis, the study concludes that the external auditing in Ghana has marginally contributed to accountability in the MMDAs. The study recommends that the scope of the external audit should include performance auditing.

Recent trends in Australian local government reform

This practice note reviews some of the recurring themes of local government reform in Australia over the past decade. In doing so it updates previous findings of the Australian Centre of Excellence for Local Government (2011) and Gooding (2013). Six themes are explored: structural reform and regional cooperation; principles-based local government acts; roles and responsibilities of elected officials; revenue controls; financial and performance auditing; and integrity and accountability.