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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.

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.

Local Government in Indonesia annually publishes Local Government Financial Statements (LGFS) for helping their stakeholders in making decisions. Audit Opinion of the LGFS for counties and cities in East Java Province during the last 8 years (2006-2013) showed a quite astonishing result. From all of 301 financial statements, only 45 LGFS (14.95%) obtained Unqualified Opinion, other financial statements (256 or 85.05%) received Non-Unqualified Opinion. This study aims to analyze the accounts and problems in the accounts which cause LGFS obtain Non-Unqualified Opinion. Using content analysis with NVIVO10 applications, this study analyzed 256 audit opinions of the LGFS of counties and cities in East Java during 2006-2013 that obtained Non-Unqualified Opinion to identify the accounts and problems in the accounts which cause LGFS obtain Non-Unqualified Opinion. The results showed that the most frequent accounts as an exception in the audit opinion are the accounts on Budget Realization Report (BR) with the frequency of occurrence as much as 6628 times. The Balance Sheet (BS) accounts was at the second place with the total frequency of occurrence 4206 times. And last, there was a Cash Flow Statement (CF) account with the frequency of occurrence as much as 693 times. In BR, the most frequent account which appears as an exception is spending account (as much as 4198 times), while the assets are the most frequent accounts as an exception in the Balance Sheet (as much as 4206 times). The problem with the accounts that often appear as an exception was mainly due to the weakness of the Internal Control System (ICS), followed by non-compliance with the provisions of law and the last problem is in-economies, inefficiency and ineffectiveness.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence about the influence of the size of local government, the quality of local government financial statements, the level of local government response to the disclosure of financial information and the local political environment on the transparency of local government in Indonesia.

The study sample consisted of 34 regional governments (provinces) in Indonesia in 2016, using purposive sampling and multiple regression analysis.

The results showed that the quality of financial reporting through the audit opinion and political environment have a significant positive effect on the transparency of local government in Indonesia. On the other hand, the size of the local government and local government response rate on the regulation do not affect the transparency of local government in Indonesia.

The agency, legitimacy and institutional theory have an important role in the underlying local government transparency practices in Indonesia. The results of this study should be used as the basis of thought and study to determine the factors that affect the performance of local governments from the financial and non-financial aspects.

The purpose of this polyphonic paper is to report on interdisciplinary discussions on the state-of-the-art and future of public sector accounting research (PSAR). The authors hope to enliven the debates of the past and future developments in terms of context, themes, theories, methods and impacts in the field of PSAR by the exchanges they include here.

This polyphonic paper adopts an interdisciplinary approach. It brings into conversation ideas, views and approaches of several scholars on the actual and future developments of PSAR in various contexts, and explores potential implications.

This paper has brought together scholars from a plurality of disciplines, research methods and geographical areas, showing at the same time several points of convergence on important future themes (such as accounting as a mean for public, accounting, hybridity and value pluralism) and enabling conditions (accounting capabilities, profession and digitalisation) for PSA scholarship and practice, and the richness of looking at them from a plurality of perspectives.

Exploring these past and future developments opens up the potential for interesting theoretical insights. A much greater theoretical and practical reconsideration of PSAR will be fostered by the exchanges included here.

In setting out a future research agenda, this paper fosters theoretical and methodological pluralism in the interdisciplinary research community interested in PSAR in various contexts. The discussion perspectives presented in this paper constitute not only a basis for further research in this relevant accounting area on the role, status and developments of PSAR but also creative potential for practitioners to be more reflective on their practices and also intended and united outcomes of such practices.

Public sector auditing research has changed rapidly over the past four decades. This paper aims to reveal how the field has developed and identify avenues for future research.

The authors used a structured literature review following Massaro et al. The sample comprises papers on public sector auditing published in accounting and public sector management journals between 1991 and 2020.

The present analysis highlights that academic research interest in public sector auditing has grown and become more diverse. The authors argue this may reflect a transformation of the public sector in recent decades, owing to the developing institutional logics of public sector reforms, from traditional public administration to new public management and now new public governance.

This paper offers a comprehensive review of the public sector auditing literature, discussing different perspectives over time. It also outlines the various public sector reforms introduced over the period of the study. In reviewing the existing literature, the authors highlight the themes for future research and policy settings.

This study aims to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of government auditing of local authorities’ compliance with the procurement rules.

A diff-in-diff approach is used where the measure of compliance is (changes in) the incidence of private litigation under the Public Procurement Act, in audited vs non-audited municipalities. Further, semi-structured interviews were conducted with chief procurement officials.

No statistically significant effect is found. While strong effects of audits can be ruled out, the statistical results and the interviews do not, however, contradict a modest but long-lasting effect.

Few studies have addressed the effect of public procurement auditing on compliance. This study develops an empirical framework and presents empirical results.

This paper explores how public audit institutions establish themselves as distinct actors on the public stage through communication practices. By focussing on the journey of the European Court of Auditors (ECA), this paper addresses the following research question: how does a transnational audit institution construct its actorhood through visual communication practices?

Using the theoretical framework of actorhood theory and inspired by the visual accounting methodology, this study explores the ECA actorhood journey through the visual analysis of front pages of its official journal (ECA Journal) from its inception in 2009 up to 2019. The visual analysis is conducted through content analysis and a two-step cluster analysis.

By showing how combinations of different visual artefacts have evolved over time, this study highlights the ways transnational public audit institutions, such as the ECA, construct their actorhood and position themselves on the public stage. It further reveals the underlying legitimacy mechanisms through which organisations such as the ECA position themselves in the public eye.

This study sheds light on the depiction of individuals and their contexts in interaction with each other and how this interaction reveals the development of the actorhood journey of the ECA over time.

This paper aims to explore how the phenomena of corruption and fraud in the public sector have been portrayed in the literature using the Audit Society Framework (Power, 1997).

The authors conducted a structured literature review (Massaro et al., 2016) to unveil relevant literature in the area of corruption and fraud in the public sector.

Results highlight that the literature using “The Audit Society” theory is still scant. Notwithstanding the call for a more decisive role of auditors in fighting corruption and fraud, much is still to be discovered about consequences of auditing and what “good quality” is.

The main limitation is that only literature in English has been included.

This paper helps practitioners and policymakers to take and implement informed decisions with regards to the fight against fraud and corruption.

In calling for more research in the domain of audit, fraud and corruption in the public sector, this paper promotes a higher focus of society on public interest and the common good.

This paper investigates one part of The Audit Society related to corruption and fraud, topics that are still very underdeveloped and unexplored by researchers. From the findings the authors suggest possible new avenues for further research.

Considering the increased financial responsibility of local government (LG), the impact of global crises and the growing adoption of accrual accounting and common standards such as IPSAS, this work focuses on financial indicators for LGs. It explores whether the literature on financial indicators has grown, investigates whether there is any consensus on which indicators to use for assessing LG's financial condition, develops a critical reading of the literature and offers suggestions for future research and policy agendas.

A structured literature review was carried out for publications in English about LG financial indicators.

Results reveal that the number of publications dealing with financial indicators has increased over the past ten years. However, rather than focusing on a set of common indicators, the literature reports a plethora of different ones used for four main purposes: transparency and accountability compliance, performance monitoring and benchmarking, assessing LG's financial health and helping deal with exogenous crises. There is no evidence of convergence towards a common set of indicators, even though liquidity and solvency are the most popular dimensions explored by scholars.

Findings highlight the challenges in converging on financial indicators, yet no claim can be made beyond the reviewed material.

Results provide legislators, public managers, investors and rating agencies with insights about trends in financial indicators, their benefits and limitations.

The article focuses on a less popular aspect of recent financial management reforms for local administration, that is the growing fragmentation in LG indicators, accentuated by the need for common assessment tools during unprecedented widespread crises across countries and sectors.