Struggling for supremacy: the case of UK public audit institutions

Bowerman, Mary; Humphrey, Christopher; Owen, David

doi:10.1006/cpac.2001.0524

Cited by 54 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…The increase in audit institutions in Italy can be seen in what some scholars refer to as the political use of auditing by the central state. In particular Bowerman et al (2003) suggest a political use of audit regulation carried out by politicians to avoid oversight of their activities. Even more critical is Funnel's (2003) work claiming an ongoing battle between auditors and politicians with the latter using auditing to make questionable political decisions appear technically sound.…”

Section: Discussion Of Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Municipal Auditing in Germany and Italy: Explosion, Change, or Recalcitrance?

Monfardini¹,

Maravić

2012

Financ Acc Manag

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By analysing two countries that have recently undergone NPM reform at the municipal level (Germany and Italy), our investigation challenges two popular notions: (1) that an audit explosion occurs as a result of reform, and (2) that reform causes change, i.e., that actors within a changing institutional context automatically adapt. Our empirically-derived observations are of (1) an audit implosion, and (2) institutional, cultural, and political conditions that trump any automatic adaptation to change. Indeed, these conditions – not audit reform per se – can shape the process and determine the direction of change. Recalcitrance, the stubborn resistance to and defiance of authority or guidance, is an interesting characteristic of some institutions. German auditors illustrate this nicely; our Italian case study demonstrates a mandatory dismantling of institutional inertia. By analysing the causal relationship between public management reforms and auditing, our research highlights the factors that prevent auditors from adapting to contextual change and factors that render obedience. We test Power's audit explosion theory by operationalising it into five key components which are then evaluated within the landscapes of recent German and Italian municipal reform

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Section: Discussion Of Findingsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Municipal Auditing in Germany and Italy: Explosion, Change, or Recalcitrance?

Monfardini¹,

Maravić

2012

Financ Acc Manag

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“…Consequently, any changes in the demand for public sector audits that shift the balance in the direction of financial auditing will be a significant disturbance to the system of professions. Funnell (1998 and 2003) and Bowerman et al (2003) suggest that such a shift is taking place because central government has a general preference for financial audits, which are less critical towards it than performance audits. Certainly, the Danish case may be interpreted as providing some evidence for this hypothesis.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such contracting out is the result of a liberal ideology of privatisation 1 and marketisation 2 that stresses the creation of market‐type mechanisms within the public sector (Pollitt and Summa, 1997). Other rationales for contracting out public sector audits are to improve audit quality by securing auditor independence and competence (Craswell, 1997; English, 2003; and Vakkuri et al, 2006), or possibly to get a type of audit which is less critical towards management's dispositions (Funnell, 1998; and Bowerman et al, 2003). Although NPM reforms have undoubtedly made public sector auditors more powerful, the same reforms have thus increased the competition between private and public sector auditing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Jurisdictional Competition Between Private and Public Sector Auditors:The Case of the Danish Certified Public Sector Auditor Qualification

Jeppesen¹

2012

Financ Acc Manag

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This paper explores the apparent paradox that while public sector auditors have become more powerful by claiming performance auditing expertise and linking this to New Public Management reforms, the same reforms have provided an opening for competition between private and public sector auditors. In Denmark, the competitive relation has led to a jurisdictional dispute between public and private sector auditors in which the former have developed a special qualification for public sector auditors. The paper analyses the development of this qualification using Abbott's (1988) theory of the system of professions, thus focusing on how the involved groups have attempted to build networks of support for their competing jurisdictional claims of expertise. The case contributes to knowledge about the potential for development of a distinct public sector auditor identity. The case suggests that to develop such an identity and gain professional recognition, public sector auditors need to convince parliaments, standard-setting bodies and universities that a public sector auditing qualification serves as a solution to some of their problems, too.

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“…This is particularly the case of "supreme audit institutions" (SAIs), the bodies that audit the accounts and expenditures of governments. These institutions are said to be "supreme" -like supreme courts -to underline their position as the highest authority in the audit of government accounts and the extent of their independence (Bowerman, Humphrey & Owen, 2003). Clarke suggests that SAIs have a form of "knowledge-based independence" where action involves the exercise of specialized knowledge disciplined by codes of conduct and where expertise is understood to be applied in a disinterested fashion (2005, p. 45).…”

Section: Bureaucratic Independence and Democratic Legitimacymentioning

confidence: 99%

Rationalism and public policy: Mode of analysis or symbolic politics?

Saint‐Martin

Allison

2011

Policy and Society

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ABSTRACT:This article takes up the distinction between incremental analysis and incremental politics as elaborated by Lindblom in his 1979 article. We argue that while rationalism as a mode of analysis has lost much of its prominence, rationalism as symbolic politics is still very much alive and might even be more present today than it was back when Lindblom wrote his famous 1959 article. The recent shift to new modes of governance whereby elected officials are increasingly delegating decision-making powers to independent bureaucracies -what Majone calls the "regulatory state" or what the British describe as "agencification" or quangoisation" -has created an important legitimacy deficit for those non-majoritarian institutions that exercise political authority without enjoying any direct link to the electoral process. In such a context -and in addition to growing public distrust towards partisan politics -rationalist politics is likely to become more rampant as independent bureaucracies lack the legitimacy to publicly recognize the fundamentally incrementalist -and thus values-laden -nature of their decision-making processes. To develop these ideas, the article looks at the case of "supreme audit institutions". We argue that rationalist politics is a mean for SAIs to legitimize their shift from classical financial auditing to performance auditing. In comparison to other independent bureaucracies, they are particularly prone to rationalist politics not just because of their institutional independence, but also because of the tradition of financial auditing and the rise of new public management.

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Struggling for supremacy: the case of UK public audit institutions

Cited by 54 publications

References 23 publications

Municipal Auditing in Germany and Italy: Explosion, Change, or Recalcitrance?

Municipal Auditing in Germany and Italy: Explosion, Change, or Recalcitrance?

Jurisdictional Competition Between Private and Public Sector Auditors:The Case of the Danish Certified Public Sector Auditor Qualification

Rationalism and public policy: Mode of analysis or symbolic politics?

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