The audit expectations gap is a prominent issue in the private sector. However, in the public sector, the audit expectations gap is an emerging issue that has received little attention by reseachers. To date, only a limited number of studies on the audit expectations gap in the public sector are available, either in the context of a financial audit or a performance audit. This study focused on the audit expectations gap in the context of the latter. The importance of the performance audit function in the Malaysian public sector, combined with recent developments related to this type of audit in the country (such as increasing expectations among the users and associated problems in practice) were the reasons for conducting the study in this area. Thus, the study aims to identify the existence of the audit expectations gap in the Malaysian public sector. In achieving this objective, it explores the perceptions of auditors and Public Account Committee (PAC) members, auditees and ‘other users’ (consisting of journalists, politicians and academics). The conceptual framework in this study was developed based on Chowdhury’s (1996) and Porter’s (1993) approaches. Utilising the accountability-based framework as suggested by Chowdhury, six audit concepts (auditor independence, auditor competence, audit scope, auditor ethics, audit reporting and auditing standards) were examined. Porter’s model was subsequently utilised to identify the nature and the components of the gap. This study employed two types of research methods: interviews and audit report analysis. Interviews were conducted with 37 participants comprising of auditors, PAC members, auditees and ‘other users’. The second research method involved the examination of four performance audit reports. The findings of this study indicated that the audit expectations gap exists in the Malaysian public sector in the context of performance auditing. The analysis of interviews and audit reports clearly suggest that the audit expectations gap exists over a number of auditing issues. These comprise fraud detection exercises, the influence of management, executive and other parties on auditors, outsourcing the audit to private audit firms, content and format of the audit report and extending the audit mandate to cover the question of merits of policy.

The aim of this thesis is to see if the elected auditors in the Swedish municipalities focus more on financial or on performance auditing in the audit report. This is a very important question today in the public sector because of the change in the elected auditor’s duties and responsibility. The public organizations management and accounting today are influenced by the private sector; therefore there must be a change in the elected auditor’s role in the public organization. The investigation was done by going through the audit reports of the municipalities of Sweden. The factors looked at were connected to both financial auditing and performance auditing and public management and accounting. Besides looking for factors, the number of words connected to each factor was counted. Since we only received audit reports from 232 out of 290 municipalities, our result is a little skewed representing the larger municipalities.The results from this study is that there is significantly more information concerning financial auditing rather than performance auditing in the audit report in the municipalities of Sweden. Also the political majority has no effect on the content of the audit report, nor do the political parties affect the amount of information concerning financial or performance auditing. The study also shows that the use of professional auditors in the municipalities can affect the content of the audit reports, both when it comes to financial and performance auditing.

Tez (Yüksek Lisans) - Süleyman Demirel Üniversitesi, Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü, Maliye Anabilim Dalı, 2008. / Bibliyografya var.

The objective of this thesis is to describe and examine the current state of research and knowledge on performance auditing and performance reporting, and how these two components of performance management can be applied in the public sector in South Africa, and, at the same time, be in line with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act. The roles and responsibilities and supporting mechanisms available for implementation are reflected on and the application in national departments in South Africa is analysed. The analysis demonstrates that limited performance audits are conducted and reported on in the annual report. Although there has been a continuous improvement in performance reporting major shortcomings identified by the Auditor-General SA include the lack of sufficient supporting evidence and non-alignment between the planning, budgeting and actual reporting information. Accounting officers made reference to performance information in their reports but the content differed and audit committees also adopt various practices. Challenges include the lack of standards, support and incentives or sanctions for poor reporting. The study concludes with recommendations and suggestion for future research. / Auditing / M. Com. (Auditing)

Submitted by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2011-09-21T13:44:08Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Aristóleles Lemos da Silva.pdf: 915720 bytes, checksum: 785fbc1645f295f5b042b88388d1fc83 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2011-09-21T13:44:28Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Aristóleles Lemos da Silva.pdf: 915720 bytes, checksum: 785fbc1645f295f5b042b88388d1fc83 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marcia Bacha (marcia.bacha@fgv.br) on 2011-09-21T13:44:39Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Aristóleles Lemos da Silva.pdf: 915720 bytes, checksum: 785fbc1645f295f5b042b88388d1fc83 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2011-09-21T13:44:48Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Aristóleles Lemos da Silva.pdf: 915720 bytes, checksum: 785fbc1645f295f5b042b88388d1fc83 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008 / In the last decade, many basic transfer income programs have been implemented in Brazil, but the poverty levels have not decreased at the same rate as the resources invested in those programs. Lack of coordination among government, financial supporters, managers and executors of public policies are the major problems. The program 'cheque cidadão', due to the huge volume of resources spent and the participation of religious institutions in the selection and distribution of its benefits, was under an audit process, in September 2004, by the 'Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro' (TCE-RJ) government agency. The program was also object of an evaluation research by the 'Instituto de Estudo do Trabalho e Sociedade' (IETS), in May 2002, with the intention of to understand the managerial process and its impacts (effectiveness) on the focus population. The purpose of this study is to contextualize these two events in the paradigm of the New Public Management (NPM) with standards of efficiency, affectivity and effectiveness and equity, expecting to insert the TCERJ in the field of performance auditing - accountability of results – and favoring the evaluation of public policies performance as a form of contribution to correspond to the growing social demand for a government oriented toward results. / No Brasil, na última década, vários programas de transferência de renda foram implantados, mas os níveis de pobreza não têm diminuído na mesma proporção do aporte de recursos investidos nos programas. Verifica-se, especialmente, a falta de coordenação entre poderes governamentais, entre órgãos gestores, financiadores e executores de políticas públicas. O programa Cheque Cidadão, dado ao grande volume de recursos distribuídos e à participação de instituições religiosas na seleção e distribuição de benefícios, foi objeto de inspeção realizada pelo Tribunal de Contas do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (TCERJ), em Campos dos Goytacazes em setembro de 2004. No ano de 2002, foi tema de pesquisa realizada pelo Instituto de Estudo do Trabalho e Sociedade (IETS), que visava conhecer o programa em seus processos e impacto junto ao público beneficiário. Este trabalho visa à contextualização destes dois eventos nos paradigmas da Nova Gestão Pública (NGP) com indicadores de desempenho de eficiência, eficácia, efetividade e eqüidade, esperando inserir o TCE-RJ no campo das Auditorias Operacionais, e favorecendo a avaliação de políticas públicas como uma forma de contribuição para corresponder à crescente demanda social por um governo orientado para resultados.

The objective of this thesis is to describe and examine the current state of research and knowledge on performance auditing and performance reporting, and how these two components of performance management can be applied in the public sector in South Africa, and, at the same time, be in line with the provisions of the Public Finance Management Act. The roles and responsibilities and supporting mechanisms available for implementation are reflected on and the application in national departments in South Africa is analysed. The analysis demonstrates that limited performance audits are conducted and reported on in the annual report. Although there has been a continuous improvement in performance reporting major shortcomings identified by the Auditor-General SA include the lack of sufficient supporting evidence and non-alignment between the planning, budgeting and actual reporting information. Accounting officers made reference to performance information in their reports but the content differed and audit committees also adopt various practices. Challenges include the lack of standards, support and incentives or sanctions for poor reporting. The study concludes with recommendations and suggestion for future research. / Auditing / M. Com. (Auditing)