Pick and Roll: Expanded roles for a state auditor

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12218
• Author: Neta Sher‐Hadar
• Date: 01 August 2020
• Published date: 01 August 2020

Received: 21 January 2019 Revised: 22 May2019 Accepted: 17 June 2019

DOI: 10.1111/faam.12218

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Pick and Roll: Expanded roles for a state auditor

Neta Sher-Hadar1,2

1Public Administrationand Policy, Sapir College,

Israel

2Mandel School for Educational Leadership,

Jerusalem, Israel

Correspondence

NetaSher-Hadar, Public Administration and Pol-

icy,Sapir College, Hof Ashkelon, Shaar Hanegev,

7915600,Israel.

Email:nsherhadar@mandel.org.il

Abstract

This paper proposes a theoretical typology for categorizing the mul-

tiple roles played by public auditing today, containing four audit

modes: classic administrative audit, policy analysis audit, values-

based audit, and public agenda audit. While some specific aspects of

these functions have been studied in other contexts, to the best of

my knowledge they have not yet been examined and articulated as

a whole. Using examples from Israel, this paper seeks to bridge this

gap in the literature by presenting this evolution,offering a theoreti-

cal framework for identifying and discussing its new scope, and their

implications both for the future of the state audit and for democracy.

KEYWORDS

governance, public administration,public auditing, state comptroller

1INTRODUCTION

The foundations of state audit were articulated and agreed upon in the Lima Declaration:

Audit is…an indispensable part of a regulatory system whose aim is to reveal deviations from accepted stan-

dards and violations of the principles of legality,efficiency, effectiveness and economy of financial management

early enough to make it possible to take correctiveaction in individual cases, to make those accountable accept

responsibility,to obtain compensation, or take steps to prevent—or at least render more difficult—such breaches.

(INTOSAI,1998, p. 5)

The main argument presented in this article is that the expansion of the functions of public auditing has now ren-

dered this definition so narrow that it is woefully insufficient for capturing the essence of the state audit, a notion that

has major implications for both the audit itself and governance in general.

To demonstratethis, the article applies an interpretive narrative analysis to 185 audit reports from Israel’s state

comptroller, thereby uncovering their inherent premises regarding the essence, role, and scope of public auditing. It

proposes that these premises, taken together, can be seen to define the spectrum of public audit today, and clearly

reveal the gap between the traditional frame of reference as formalized at Lima and what is happening in prac-

tice. Inspired by the typology provided by Thompson and Tuden(1959) for describing the different decision-making

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