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This article analysed how data collection systems (DCS) developed by governmental audit organizations (Court of Accounts) affect budgetary planning within local governments.

Eighteen semi-structured interviews complemented by six time-lagged interviews via WhatsApp were carried out with the actors involved in the preparation and auditing of the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) in Brazilian local governments. Documents such as the structured layouts of Courts' DCS and the publicised MTEF prepared by local governments were also analysed.

The findings indicate that Courts' DCS structured layouts reduce local governments' budgetary planning autonomy in elaborating their MTEF. It happens as the Courts' main driver is to make MTEF information auditable and not to improve the usefulness of information by governments. As a result, the planning choices of the local governments end up limited, not by the general legislation but by the rules established by the computerized systems of the Courts.

The paper's originality relies on demonstrating that the digitalisation of audit processes ultimately affects local governments' practices through structured layouts for the data collection on MTEF information - that impose rigidity on the budget planning process of local governments. The authors highlight the role of public sector auditing organisations as potential catalysts of reforms; however, this should be considered cautiously since the drivers and motivations of the organisation that sponsors public financial management reforms matter for overall reform effectiveness.

Internal audit is an essential component of the accountability structure in Ghana's local government system. Favourable conditions are required for its operation to assist management bodies to fulfil their responsibilities efficiently and effectively. Using Internal Control-Integrated Framework, this paper investigates the conditions under which internal auditing is carried out in four selected local governments in the Central Region of Ghana.

Based on interpretivism and qualitative approach, purposive sampling technique was used to select 14 key informants at various levels of governance for primary data by the use of key informant interview guide. The data were analysed using pattern matching and content analysis based on themes.

The findings of the study indicate that internal auditors faced unfavourable conditions including intimidation, threats and administrative interference in the course of performing their duties.

This paper is based on qualitative data from four selected local governments in the Central Region of Ghana. Hence these findings are specific to the local governments, internal auditors and management bodies in the country to benefit from them. The implication of the findings is closely related to the efforts to realise the ultimate goal of the recent government reforms and the need for further reforms to enhance independence, objectivity, effectiveness and efficiency.

This study helps management of local governments in finding out conditions under which internal auditing operates. This helps to enhance favourable conditions and minimise the unfavourable conditions for the purpose of efficient and effective utilisation of resources towards improvement of service delivery of local government system to meet the needs of the people.

The study contributes to the understanding and application of Internal Control-Integrated Framework to local government system in the Central Region. It also uses the agency theory to explain the conditions under which internal auditing is carried out in the selected local government institutions.

This study provides new insight into the conditions of carrying out internal auditing in local governments and raises awareness of stakeholders on the need to enhance service delivery to the people. It also introduces a novel idea of placing all internal auditors under a newly established Internal Audit Class to advance independence and objectivity.

Recent financial scandals in the private sector have led to widespread speculation that public organizations may be susceptible to similar events of financial misconduct and should, therefore, be required to adopt similar strategies to those that are mandated of private-sector corporations under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. This paper looks at one of those strategies by examining the use of audit committees in U.S. local governments. Specifically, this paper explores (1) why local governments have heretofore voluntarily created audit committees, (2) the perceived benefits and problems of audit committees, and (3) whether the use of audit committees is compatible with the principal-agent logic that underlies their promotion.

This paper offers a comparison of local government accounting and auditing in the U.S. and the U.K., including descriptions of the wider environment of the two governmental systems. The paper identifies two major differences in accounting. The first is that, in the U.S., the standard-setter makes requirements, whereas the U.K. policy-maker issues recommendations, which are sometimes not followed. The second is that, in the context of public reports outside the audited financial statements, the U.K. government has mandated the preparation and publication of performance measures by local governments.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which audit opinion, audit findings, follow-up audit recommendations, level of education, level of welfare and heads of local governments’ commitment influence the disclosure of financial statements on the official website of local government.

The data of this research comprise 68 financial statements during the period 2015–2016 collected from 34 local governments across Indonesia by employing the census method. The data then are analyzed using logistic regression.

The results of this study show that audit opinion has a positive significant influence on the disclosure of financial statements on local government websites in Indonesia, while the audit findings, follow-up audit recommendations, level of education, level of welfare and heads of local governments’ commitment have no significant influences on the disclosure of financial statements local governments’ websites across Indonesia.

The study contributes to the public sector accounting research by enhancing our understanding to the disclosure of financial statements on local government websites.

The financial audit process has provided much transparency into the internal control structure and the ability of local governments to remain fiscally stable. The outcomes of many of these audits have provided much information regarding the ability of local governments to provide services in a timely and efficient manner. Even with the implementation of stricter legislation and more stringent accounting standards in addition to an increased level of state oversight, irregular practices and mismanagement continue to occur. This study examines the independent auditor findings in professionally administered governments in North Carolina. Findings indicate numerous reporting problems within a majority of county governments ranging from internal control problems to reconciliation issues that are required to be addressed for information users that question the sustainability of the unit. Lengthy audits processes, less expensive audits and smaller governments that do not have the ability to employ more accountants or accounting specialists are among the factors that increase the probability of reporting problems and inaccurate data.

In Sweden there is an ongoing debate on ways to enhance accountability and transparency in order to avoid future scandals both in private companies and local government. Until now the debate has had clear political overtones, and there are no generally accepted methods for analysis of this issue. The purpose of the article is to survey and analyze the chain of accountability to be reviewed by the auditors and through the use of principal‐agent (PA) theory to identify the problems that may arise in holding persons accountable.

The paper shows how PA theory can be used to structure and analyse the intricate situation in Swedish local government. The model is particularly suitable in complex systems of accountability. Therefore, the paper explores two cases where the outcomes were discharge from liability. Based on the two case studies, the paper extends the empirical investigation to a list of 63 qualified audit reports in local government for 2002 and 2003.

PA theory facilitated the understanding and structuring of the complex accountability situation and helped to identify important weaknesses in the system. The analysis underscored that neither better accounting nor better auditing systems alone will resolve the dilemma in improving accountability. The link between auditors and elected officials and civil servants needs to be investigated and clarified. Among other things, this means that the focus of today's debate should shift toward the lack of clear responsibilities within local governments.

This paper explores an area of research where few studies have previously been conducted – therefore, the paper is to some extent exploratory. In the future the number of empirical examples could be increased, and the different problems in the system of accountability in local government could be discussed in more detail.

This research paper is based on an empirical investigation – as far as we know no such study has previously been performed in Sweden The principle of public access to information in Sweden provides unique opportunities for openly studying the work of auditors in the system.

The research shows that PA theory may be used to structure complex issues of accountability. In addition, the study recommends a new focus for the debate on accountability.

We investigate whether council audit committees relate to municipal fiscal policies. We find that municipalities with audit committees are associated with greater levels of own-source revenue, in that they finance municipal operations with locally raised revenues driven by charges and fees compared to municipalities without audit committees. Furthermore, municipalities with audit committees are associated with less new debt than those without audit committees, indicating more conservative use of external financing. Overall, our results are consistent with municipal audit committees, in addition to monitoring the financial reporting function, playing an advisory role in fiscal decisions, especially when the cost of local government to citizens is high.