There have been uncertainties to what a performance audit generates, as audit impact have an inherent causality problem. Prior studies present several factors that affect perceived audit impact, but the generalizability is low and not applicable in a Swedish context, thus this thesis contributes to the development of the existing knowledge by investigating audit impact. This thesis consists of a sample of three performance audits which are investigated through a mix methods approach with a total 23 interviews and multiple public documents, analyzed with earlier studies and theories as a benchmark. The findings indicate that audit impact is complex where several factors affect audit impact, this thesis indicated that usefulness and quality of the performance audit are the main factors that affects perceived audit impact. There are also additional effects by the performance audit that fall outside of the audit impact definition. Due to the small sample size and the fact that performance audits often are regulated by local laws one must be careful in what context these findings are solely applied in another context.

This study examines whether auditor industry expertise in private clients influences audit quality of public client engagements in the United States. Private companies are significant to the U.S. economy as well as audit firms. I hand-collect auditors' private client information and construct a national, city, and joint national/city specialist designation and document a 17.9 to 47.3 (12.9 to 25.8) percent decrease in a public client's likelihood to misstate their financial statements (net income earnings management) when an auditor is a private client industry specialist. I then construct and test a city specialist measure using both private and public client data and find that it is economically stronger and more robust than the public only measure commonly employed by audit researchers. This study provides evidence of the importance of private companies to an audit firm's industry expertise as well as to researchers' use of city specialist measure in audit studies. / Doctor of Philosophy / This study examines whether auditor industry expertise in private clients influences audit quality of public client engagements in the United States. Private companies are significant to the U.S. economy as well as audit firms. I hand-collect auditors' private client information and construct a national, city, and joint national/city specialist designation and find that audit quality is higher for the audit firm's public clients in the same industry. Next, I construct and test a city industry specialist measure using both private and public client data and find that it is economically stronger and more robust than the public only measure commonly employed by audit researchers. This study provides evidence of the importance of private companies to an audit firm's industry expertise as well as to researchers' use of city specialist measure in audit studies.

State supervision of financial activities The topic of this dissertation thesis is the state supervision of financial activities. The topic is really wide, so the author can take into account all of the financial relationships related to this area. This thesis focused on theoretical issues, on the legal relationships in this area, and specifically on the selected areas, in which was a drafted question later on in detail analyzed. In the theoretical area are considered terms such as regulation, supervision and control. The aim was to define these concepts theoretically, to chart their frequency and semantic nature in the area of financial activities. The aim of this thesis was also to investigate, whether it is possible to set out the terms that are used both in everyday and in professional life in an identical meaning, and define specifically for the area of financial law. It has been found that it is very difficult, if not impossible task, as any definition cannot cover the diversity, frequency and a steady increase in the financial legal relations. Higher attention is paid to external control exercised by the Supreme Audit Office. This issue is consider to be very important, but it is underappreciated and very sporadically also published, which is inconvenient and inadequate to the importance of...

This diploma thesis deals with historical development of the Czech Supreme Audit Office and its foreign analogies. The subject of the thesis is to evaluate the current legal status of the Supreme Audit Office and then propose possible modifications with reference to the regulatory audit institutions in European countries. The diploma thesis is divided into two parts. The theoretical part contains material study, theoretical introduction to the control and audit and then examines in detail the historical progress of the Supreme Audit Office in the Czech Republic to its current form. Other chapters are focused on different foreign institutions which are responsible for the national audit. The practical part highlights the differences between the control authorities. The comparison of individual offices is analysed on the basis of the Lima Declaration of Guidelines on Auditing Precepts.

Public performance auditing is a type of auditing government departments’ use to review three specific aspects (efficiency, effectiveness and economy) of a sector, department or project. Upon completion of a public performance audit, the relevant supreme audit institution releases a performance audit report. The purpose of this study is to determine the level content compliance in these public performance audit reports with the international performance audit standards ISSAI 3000-3001. This study compares the level of content compliance in South Africa, a developing countries against Australia, a developed country. A type of text analysis was used to collate the levels of content compliance in a total of fifty reports, twenty-five reports published by the Auditor General of South Africa (AGSA) and twenty-five reports published by the Australian National Audit Office (ANAO), during the period 2006 – 2013. The finding revealed that public performance audit reports published in Australia have a greater level of content compliance than reports published in South Africa. The results of the report further detail the content shortcomings in the reports reviewed. This study will assist both the AGSA and ANAO in highlighting content concerns in these performance audit report, which is the first step towards improvement.

Právní úprava kontroly Nejvyššího kontrolního úřadu Abstrakt Tato diplomová práce pojednává o právní úpravě kontroly Nejvyššího kontrolního úřadu České republiky. Součástí práce je také stručný popis historického vývoje kontrolních institucí na území České republiky, mezinárodní rozměr kontroly ve veřejné správě. Postavení Nejvyššího kontrolního úřadu a úprava jím prováděné kontroly je upravena zejména v Ústavě České republiky v její páté hlavě v článku 97. Podrobnější úprava je pak zakotvena v zákoně č. 166/1993 Sb. o Nejvyšším kontrolním úřadu. Nejvyšší kontrolní úřad je nezávislý orgán vykonávající kontrolu hospodaření se státním majetkem a kontrolu plnění státního rozpočtu. Organizační struktura Úřadu je tvořena prezidentem, viceprezidentem a členy Úřadu, kteří dohromady tvoří Kolegium Úřadu. Dále pak kárná komora, senáty Úřadu a kontroloři. Nejvyšší kontrolní úřad je navenek řízen jeho prezidentem, který současně předseda kolegiu Úřadu. Vzhledem k tomu, že Nejvyšší kontrolní úřad je koncipován jako úřad kolegiální, je kolegium Úřadu stěžejním orgánem, který schvaluje mimo jiné plán kontrolní činnosti Úřadu, zpracované kontrolní závěry, ze kterých vycházejí stanoviska ke státnímu závěrečnému účtu, výroční zprávu Úřadu a kárný řád. Faktickou kontrolu hospodaření se státním majetkem a plnění státního...

Background and Problem: The audit expectation gap is an interesting phenomenon whereseveral academics and researchers have studied this subject in the audit environment. However,in relation to the research conducted on the audit expectation gap in the private sector, a lack ofresearch exists on the audit expectation gap in the public sector. The importance ofunderstanding and realising the audit expectation gap in the public sector relies on the threatthe gap has on the legitimacy and trust of the national audit offices and public auditors. Purpose: This research study aims to explore the audit expectation gap in the public sector.The study seeks to investigate what manifests the audit expectation gap between the SwedishNational Audit Office and the society of Sweden. In addition, the study aims to moreoverunderstand the reasons for making the audit expectation gap emerge. Method: The study includes two different research methods aimed to explore the differentperceptions of the public auditors and the society concerning the roles and responsibilities ofpublic state auditors. Semi-structured interviews with auditors from the Swedish National AuditOffice were conducted to comprehend their perception of public auditors. In comparison,content analysis on a published news article of the Swedish National Audit Office was observedto comprehend the Swedish society’s perceptions of public auditors. The two research methodswere then analysed and compared to explore if an audit expectation gap exists between thedifferent perceptions. Findings: The findings provide an understanding of different contributors causing an auditexpectation gap to emerge between the Swedish National Audit Office and Swedish society.The findings suggest that the audit expectation gap can be a consequence of the public lack ofknowledge in the office, poor performance or failure to adhere to core ethical principles byeither the individual auditor or office or the efficiency of the standard and its sufficiency toprovide with high-quality auditing. When such situations or circumstances emerge, the findingsindicate that an audit expectation gap is manifested between the Swedish National Audit Officeand the Swedish society.

This study examines the impact of U.S. states’ staggered adoption of the inevitable disclosure doctrine (IDD) on rival companies’ auditor choice. I posit that, in states where the IDD limits employee mobility among rival companies, the IDD adoption exogenously increases the costs of disclosing proprietary information through other channels. I find that on average peer companies do not show any changes in the probability of audit office sharing after the companies’ headquarter states adopt the IDD. I also find that companies with trade secrets respond to IDD adoption by avoiding audits conducted by the same audit office as their competitors’ audit office, supporting the proprietary cost hypothesis. The results are robust not only in various levels of auditor sharing but also after I incorporate factors including Mergers and Acquisitions, SOX, and differentiations of IDD adoption and rejection. Cross-sectional results related to Big N auditors suggest that peer companies with trade secrets that hire Big N auditors increase audit office sharing because Big N auditors’ higher levels of reputation, higher litigation costs, and deep pockets alleviate concerns of potential information leakage through audit office sharing in the post IDD adoption periods. My cross-sectional results related to audit committee experts show that peer companies with trade secrets respond to IDD adoption by engaging in more frequent audit office sharing when they have industry experts and accounting financial experts on audit committees. Supervisory financial expertise on audit committees of peer companies with trade secrets does not seem to affect the probability of audit office sharing after the IDD adoption. To my knowledge, this study is the first to document the causal effect of proprietary information costs on audit office choices of U.S. companies with trade secrets. / Business Administration/Accounting

Submitted by paulo junior (paulo.jr@fgv.br) on 2010-03-10T17:30:53Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Calves2.pdf: 34585 bytes, checksum: 638aae71dfea16f8cdcf63a91d7c33b0 (MD5) Calves1.pdf: 395079 bytes, checksum: 71d4d192810b494e055e38b274e945a7 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by paulo junior(paulo.jr@fgv.br) on 2010-03-10T17:31:24Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Calves2.pdf: 34585 bytes, checksum: 638aae71dfea16f8cdcf63a91d7c33b0 (MD5) Calves1.pdf: 395079 bytes, checksum: 71d4d192810b494e055e38b274e945a7 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2010-03-11T14:20:04Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Calves2.pdf: 34585 bytes, checksum: 638aae71dfea16f8cdcf63a91d7c33b0 (MD5) Calves1.pdf: 395079 bytes, checksum: 71d4d192810b494e055e38b274e945a7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-05-06 / The object of this dissertation is to identify the perception of stakeholders related to the organizational action taken by the Account Court of Rio de Janeiro State TCERJ in the use of one of his institutional responsibilities, interruption of the implementation of act and/or contract, plus case study. Identifying, from the contribution of stakeholders, possible deficiencies and potential fixes in the performance of the state agency in exercising jurisdiction in focus. / O objeto desta dissertação é identificar a percepção dos stakeholders acerca da ação organizacional empreendida pelo Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro - TCERJ, no exercício de uma de suas competências institucionais, sustação da execução de ato e/ou de contrato, complementadas por um estudo de caso. Identificando, a partir das contribuições dos stakeholders, eventuais deficiências e potenciais correções na atuação do órgão estatal no exercício da competência em destaque.

The thesis focuses on the Supreme Audit Office (SAO) - supreme control institution carrying out an external audit of the public administration in Czech Republic. First part of the thesis includes the basic concepts in the field of public administration. Second part is divided into five blocks, which analyze SAO´s position in public power, its scope and authority, organization, control and financial activities. Next part of the thesis introduces models of supreme control institutions used in France, Germany, Austria, Great Britain, Sweden and Slovakia. Those models are compared with Czech SAO at the end of the chapter. The fourth chapter is based on this comparison and introduces the conclusions and possible changes of Czech legislative framework.