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Governments function differently from business organizations. Thus, performance or operational auditing becomes necessary to replace the measure of success evidenced by the latter through the measurement of profit. Governments are evaluated through performance auditing by measuring efficiency, economy, and effectiveness. Unique planning, specialized staffing, government oriented scope and government management reporting constitute the parameters of a performance auditing model appropriate for government officials and stakeholders.

A meta-evaluation is an assessment of evaluation practices. Meta-evaluations include assessments of validity and usefulness of two or more studies that focus on the same issues. Every performance audit is grounded explicitly or implicitly in one or more theories of program evaluation. A deep understanding of alternative theories of program evaluation is helpful to gain clarity about sound auditing practices. We present a review of several theories of program evaluation.

This study includes a meta-evaluation of seven government audits on the efficiency and effectiveness of tourism departments and programs. The seven tourism-marketing performance audits are program evaluations for: Missouri, North Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota, Australia, and two for Hawaii. The majority of these audits are negative performance assessments. Similarly, although these audits are more useful than none at all, the central conclusion of the meta-evaluation is that most of these audit reports are inadequate assessments. These audits are too limited in the issues examined; not sufficiently grounded in relevant evaluation theory and practice; and fail to include recommendations, that if implemented, would result in substantial increases in performance.

The purpose of this paper, based on the institution change theory, is to analyze the factors which influence the auditees' demand for government performance auditing (GPA).

This study acquired the data by survey. The author investigated the government officials and the state‐owned enterprises and institutions' senior managers from 28 provinces and cities, then used the econometrics model to test the hypotheses.

By analyzing the survey data, it is found that the respondents who come from the region where the economy is less developed and the legislative level is lower have more demand for the performance auditing; the respondents' knowledge about the GPA has not increased their demand; the auditing penalty effects has negative impact on the demand for performance auditing and the organizational support has positive effects on their demand.

The findings in this study suggest that there is not enough GPA supply in the region where the economy is less developed and the legislative level is lower, and that the auditees have not realized the benefits of GPA, although they know something about the GPA.

The national audit office and its branches should pay more attention to the region where the developmental level of GPA is lower and allocate the auditing resources more efficiently. The government officials should learn more about GPA to realize its benefits and distinguish GPA from the other kinds of government auditing, such as the financial revenues and expenditures auditing. Moreover, the government at all levels should give substantial support to GPA.

The paper empirically analyzes, for the first time, the government auditees' demand for GPA. The paper extends previous studies in this field by surveying auditees who have been neglected but have important impact on the development of GPA.

The paper seeks to explore the argument for performance auditing and its place in financial management in the Brunei public sector.

The paper draws on the literature on financial management, the author's own experience teaching public sector financial management in Brunei, and interviews with audit staff in Brunei.

Although performance auditing is envisaged in the legislation, the main thrust of auditing is still on financial and procedural compliance; the paper discusses why this is so and in what circumstances it might change.

Examining the experience of performance auditing in Brunei case shows the nature of the contextual factors which underlie the performance‐oriented approach which is assumed in the new public management, and the implications for its application outside the western liberal democratic world.

The value of the paper lies in clearly delineating the nature of the change which the implementation of performance auditing would mean in Brunei public sector and the implications for non‐western countries, particularly oil economies.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Knowing how an SAI orients its performance auditing has potential to support SAI monitoring by stakeholders – Parliament, the government, the citizens and others.

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.

The present chapter includes a case study that describes and analyzes three performance audit reports over a three decade period for one U.S. state government's destination management organization's (DMO) actions and outcomes. This report extends prior studies (Woodside & Sakai, 2001, 2003) that support two conclusions: (1) the available independent performance audits of DMOs’ actions and outcomes indicate that frequently DMOs perform poorly and fail to meaningfully assess the impacts of their own actions and (2) the audits themselves are shallow and often fail to provide information on DMOs’ actions and outcomes relating to these organizations largest marketing expenditures. The chapter calls for embracing a strategy shift in designing program evaluations by both government departments responsible for managing destinations’ tourism marketing programs and all government auditing agencies in conducting future management performance audits. The chapter offers a “tourism performance audit template” as a tool for both strategic planning by destination management organizations and for evaluating DMOs’ planning and implementing strategies. The chapter includes an appendix – a training exercise in using the audit template and invites the reader to download a tourism performance audit report of a destination marketing organization and to apply the template after reading the report.

This paper aims to develop a classification scheme of different types of value for money (VFM) audits with different degrees of compliance audit, and to classify the performance audits carried out by the Swedish National Audit Office (SNAO) during its first six years as an independent state audit organization reporting to parliament.

The empirical data were gathered from all of the 150 audit reports published by the SNAO from its establishment in 2003 to the end of 2008. Seminars were arranged to discuss the classifications for validation.

The focus on traditional VFM audits (the “Three Es”) is unusual. Most audits carried out by the SNAO combine different types of extended VFM audits with compliance audit. On the one hand, they audit how the government and/or central agencies fulfil their mandates (from good to bad). On the other, they audit how the government and/or central agencies adhere to legislation, rules and policies (right or wrong). In some cases, the SNAO equates compliance audit with performance audit.

The authors have verbalised and visualised performance audit activities of interest not only to state auditors, but also to external stakeholders. One practical implication is that the Swedish national audit committee has conducted an evaluation of the SNAO that is partly based on the national report of this study, and has proposed a stronger focus on the Three Es.

The study addresses a new approach in terms of a classification scheme for performance audits, consisting of eight types of VFM audits and three degrees of compliance audit, and creating 24 possible combinations.

This paper aims to explore the role of public sectors auditors in strategically responding to institutional pressures to conduct a performance audit of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) implementation in Ghana.

To gather in-depth and rich empirical data, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 senior and middle management auditors of Ghana's Supreme Audit Institution (SAI).

The findings indicate that the International Organisation of Supreme Audit Institutions, the government, auditees, political executives and the Audit Service Board all exert institutional pressure on Ghana's audit of SDG implementation. In response to these pressures, the SAI deploys acquiescence, compromise and manipulation strategies that result in the coupling, and in some cases, the loose coupling of SDG audit practices.

Observation method of data collection would have given the researchers first-hand knowledge of the role of auditors, the institutional pressures to SDG audit and the strategic response to the institutional pressures. The authors were unable to accompany the public sector auditors to their field audits. This would have aided in obtaining more detailed empirical data.

The findings suggest that external and internal factors affect public sector audit of SDG implementation. Because the SAI of Ghana is dependent on the central government for budgetary allocation and auditees for miscellaneous logistics, it is under coercive pressure to meet rent seeking demands of political executives. As a result, SAIs in emerging economies must revisit the other side of accountability by reinforcing a constructive dialogue with those held accountable, particularly politicians and auditees.

This study's contribution is the exploration and application of institutional theory and Oliver (1991) model for responding to institutional pressures to a novel research area, namely, SDG implementation audit by public sector auditors in an emerging economy.

This paper aims to provide insights into how the New Zealand Office of the Auditor-General (NZOAG) legitimised the selection of topics for performance audit in the New Zealand public health sector over a 10-year period, 2003-2013, by fulfilling the key actors’ “taken for granted beliefs” of the dual roles of the NZOAG: its independence and accountability.

This paper uses evidence gathered from interviews with representatives of the District Health Boards, the Ministry of Health (including Health Advisory Committee members) and NZOAG staff, along with publically available documentary evidence over a 10-year period. The authors draw on Suchman’s (1995) authority on institutional legitimacy to inform the research findings.

The New Zealand Auditors-General (NZAGs) get inputs from various sources such as their own audit teams, parliamentary deliberations, the Ministry of Health, the District Health Boards, media and public concerns and complaints. These sources initiate ideas for performance audits. Subsequently, the NZAGs use the recurring themes and risk assessment criteria while simultaneously consulting with the auditees (the MOH and the DHBs) and other actors, such as health advisory groups, to select topics for such audits. This signals to the key actors, such as the MOH and the DHBs, that the NZOAG is addressing the topics and concerns relevant to the former while discharging its public accountability role. Furthermore, the consultative approach acts as a catalyst, ensuring that the actors involved with public sector health service delivery, specifically the auditees, accept the selected topic. This leads to a lack of resistance to and criticism of the topic; the selection process, therefore, is legitimatised, and credibility is added to the audits. Because of the consultative approach taken by the NZAGs, the actors, including the performance auditors, continue to believe that the Office acts independently from third party influence in selecting their audit topics, elevating the NZAGs’ moral legitimacy with respect to their public accountability role.

The study’s focus group does not include parliamentary representatives, only representatives from the DHBs, the MOH and the NZOAG; therefore, the conclusions on effective discharge of the NZOAG’s accountability role and Parliamentary acceptance is not conclusive – the NZOAG acts on behalf of the Parliament in discharging its accountability role and the latter is also the formal recipient of the reports.

The implications for practitioners and policymakers are that the use of a consultative approach to select topics for performance audit in the absence of performance auditing standards ensures auditee readiness and acceptance of such audits. This also promotes mutual benefits and “trust” between the AG and auditees. Such audits can be used to bring about efficacy in health service delivery.

The selected topics for audits will have an impact on citizens’ lifestyles, with improved health services delivery.

There is a dearth of research on who initiates the ideas for performance auditing and how the Office of the Auditor-General selects topics for such audits. This study adds a new dimension to the existing performance auditing literature. The authors reveal how the NZOAG seeks to legitimise the selection of topics for such audits by consulting with the auditees and other actors associated with public sector health service delivery, while upholding its independent status and making transparent how it discharges its accountability role within the context of performance auditing.

It is believed that public sector auditing leads to a more efficient and effective performance of the public sector. This assumption recently has been challenged by adherents of the new public management (NPM). Describes characteristics of NPM such as freeing up controls over and devolving greater responsibility to managers. Answers the question, why should performance auditors be interested in this phenomenon? Discusses the difficulties and challenges that performance auditors are confronted with when they want to contribute to the performance of the public sector. These refer to unintended side‐effects of auditing such as ossification but they also deal with the lack of communication between auditors and auditees. Challenges implicit feedback theory, which underlies work of auditors. Gives suggestions on how to handle some of these challenges.