Public sector audit history in Britain and Australia

• Author: David Gilchrist,Robyn Pilcher,Michelle Bunn
• Published date: 01 February 2018
• Date: 01 February 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/faam.12143

Received: 7 August 2015 Revised: 9 February2016 Accepted: 31 March 2016

DOI: 10.1111/faam.12143

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

Public sector audit history in Britain and Australia

Michelle Bunn Robyn Pilcher David Gilchrist

CurtinUniversity, School of Accounting, Perth,

WA,Australia

Correspondence

RobynPilcher, Curtin University,School of

Accounting,Perth, PO Box U1987, WA 6845,

Australia.

Email:r.pilcher@curtin.edu.au

Abstract

The introduction of an independent public sector audit function was

a critical element in the nineteenth century constitutional reforms

of parliamentary and government accountability and created an

essential precedent for current practice. By examining the extentof

scholarly research on public sector audit history,findings reveal con-

siderable research examined the teleological development of public

sector audit and the modern history in a New Public Management

context. However,there has been very little published regarding the

complex rationalesaround the origins, development and importance

of independent public sector audit notwithstanding that without an

appreciation of these precedents it becomes very difficult to protect

the Westminster-based system of democraticgovernment.

KEYWORDS

audit, auditor-general, Australia, history, Imperial Britain, indepen-

dence, public sector

1INTRODUCTION

This paper argues that more scholarly attention needs to be given to examining the constitutional place of auditor-

general independence that developed in Britain during the nineteenth century and which is critical to modern day

parliamentary sovereignty. The Westminster-based system of democratic government, relying on a combination

of written constitutions and precedent, recognises an independent auditor-general as fundamental to government

accountability.Indeed, the independent auditing of the expenditure of public funds is an essential part of constitutional

safeguards (Funnell, Cooper,& Lee, 2012; Normanton, 1966). The development trajectory is also important in relation

to understanding and protecting part-written constitutions such as that of Australia (Gilchrist & Coulson, 2015). Fur-

ther,this history is important for educators and policymakers in terms of current public sector audit practice. Without

an appreciation of the conditions by which governments function (including precedents relating to the purpose, pow-

ers and functioning of public sector auditors), and how they were arrived at, it becomes difficult to protect important

controls in constitutional arrangements (Finn, 1987; Pilcher,Gilchrist, Singh, & Singh, 2013).

Yet given that the topic of public sector audit, sometimes called state audit, history holds so much precedent

for today's practice, it is perhaps surprising that it has received significantly less attention than the related topic of

accounting history – an area that has long been a source of interest to scholars.

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