ارزش حسابرسی بخش عمومی: ادبیات و تاریخ The value of public sector audit: Literature and history

1. Introduction Public sector auditing is a large area of auditing practice that is complex and comparatively unexplored. The purpose of this investigation is to examine the function and purpose of auditing, especially in the public sector, and to review ways in which it adds value. The investigation summarizes evidence that public sector auditing adds value, and develops suggestions about how its benefits might be increased. It also develops issues for further research. This paper has been developed from a project that conducted independent research and reported on it to the Controller and Auditor-General of New Zealand. As a result, it refers to New Zealand examples on occasion, but these are expected to be relevant to other Western democracies.1 Public sector auditing has not been as widely examined as it should. According to Banker, Cooper, and Potter (1992, p. 508) “researchers in accounting have not been responsive to the problems and opportunities associated with developments in government accounting,” and this comment is still relevant. Nevertheless the literature includes many valuable studies (Baber 1983; Blume & Voigt 2011; Brusca, Caperchione, Cohen, & Manes Rossi, 2015). The existing research can be divided into two streams, the “alternative” or “contextual” and the mainstream (Broadbent & Guthrie, 2008). We provide a literature review of the alternative research. We then review the body of literature examining the reasons why auditing is useful (Abdel-khalik, 1993; Chow, 1982; Hay et al., 2014; Wallace, 1980). This auditing literature was primarily developed to examine private sector auditing, but can also be relevant to the public sector (e.g., Evans & Patton, 1987), and is related to the mainstream public sector literature. We examine this literature and its applicability to research about the value of public sector auditing, developing six explanations for the value of auditing. In many cases, public sector auditors have a responsibility for value for money auditing as well as for financial statement auditing, and we examine the issues regarding value for money auditing as well. We then review the historical development of public escort auditing to address why the institutions are constituted in the way that they are.