Maria Gustavson

Organizing the Audit Society: Does Good Auditing Generate Less Public Sector Corruption?

Few cross-country studies examine the effects of auditing quality on public sector corruption. We present a definition of good auditing consisting of three principles: independence, professionalism, and recognizing the people as the principal. Using novel data from an original expert survey covering more than 100 countries, the concept is then operationalized and tested empirically. The results demonstrate that good auditing has a positive effect on national levels of public sector corruption. This lends reason to believe that auditing which is organized according to certain principles has potential to contribute to well-functioning public administrations with a low degree of corruption.

Gender Aspects of Government Auditing

In this chapter, we examine to what extent government auditing agencies mediates the effect from proportions of women in parliament on national levels of corruption; thus, we test, using a cross-country comparative design, whether higher proportions of women are associated with well-functioning auditing agencies, which further down the road is associated with lower levels of corruption. A related question is whether women in national parliaments have extra incentives to push for a state on track. One such incentive may be that those areas affecting the everyday lives of women citizens are particularly vulnerable when monitoring of the state is weak. The results suggest that initial relationships between the proportion of women in parliament and levels of corruption become insignificant when mediating variables are introduced.

Dimensions of Development — Transnational Professional Communities

The starting point for this study was the various debated paths for development in Africa and how conclusions drawn in these discussions were in general not very empirically grounded in studies among public officials in these countries. In particular, when this literature was contrasted against the conclusions drawn from empirical studies on how organizations and professionals conduct themselves in other parts of the world; the picture of public-sector reforms in African countries became a puzzle.

The African Context of Public Auditors

The first case in the study consists of the arenas for public auditors in Sub-Saharan Africa, that is, the African regional groups, AFROSAI and AFROSAI-E, within the standard-making organization for state audit institutions (INTOSAI), where the empirical study is limited to a number of activities taking place within these groups. The fieldwork conducted consisted of observations, personal interviews, document studies, as well as a number of informal conversations (see the Appendix for all data collected). The idea of starting the study with an open approach using multiple sources was to create a broad understanding of the context in order to avoid a too-narrow approach and, instead, with the theoretical approaches as guidance, enable a more open approach for variety within the empirical setting.

The National Audit Offices of Botswana and Namibia

The chapter is structured as follows. First, is a short description of Botswana and an overview of the development of Botswana’s Office of the Auditor General (OAG). Next, a similar presentation of Namibia and the Office of the Auditor General (OAG) in Namibia are provided. Second, there is a presentation of the results in the study: first the auditors’ perceptions of international standards in general, and next a presentation of how the organizations have handled the practices outlined in the model of a Supreme Audit Institution.

State Audit Conceptualized

In this study, the key focus is on the relationship between international standards of public-sector audit and how such standards are handled by auditors in a Sub-Saharan African context. Due to the extensive range of international audit standards, operationalization of the standards is necessary to not only study what the auditors express, in terms of their views and opinions about international standards in general, but also the actions they take. In order to sort among all standards, the literature on public audit and what is argued to be the main characteristics for public audit institutions is used. Then, in accordance with the literature and the international public audit standards per se, the standards are operationalized into a model of a Supreme Audit Institution. The aim with the model is to enable a comparison to be made between what is described in the international standards and what may be considered national practices at the SAIs in Namibia and Botswana. Important to note is that the study has not the ambition to study the auditors’ everyday practice and to what extent they use international audit standards in their daily work. Rather, with the help of the model, the study focuses on the main characteristics of international standards and how the SAIs in Namibia and Botswana have handled these areas throughout the years.

The Dynamics of Public Sector Reform — Two Research Traditions

As we have seen in the previous chapter there are various explanations in the literature for why administrative reforms have failed in Africa, as well as several answers, debated among scholars, for the future paths of the continents’ development; in this chapter these explanations and suggested solutions will be explored in greater detail. The explanations mainly concern how the political and administrative cultures are argued to be different in Africa than in the West, or that too little attention has been paid to the low levels of capacity in Africa, which has led to failed reforms. The debated paths for development in Africa mainly subsist within two overall perspectives — the critical development perspective, which criticizes the concepts of ‘development’ and ‘modernization,’ since these concepts make development in Africa imply becoming blueprints of the West; and the more pragmatic development perspective by which development as understood and existing in the West is not regarded as problematic to attempt in Africa. However, also within this perspective there is general awareness that models which are used in the West need to be adjusted to suit prevailing local circumstances. Such circumstances are, in general, argued to be capacity levels, but also socioeconomic and cultural contexts are highlighted as important to be adapted to when building institutions.

Introduction: Good Government and Development in Africa

Although some African countries have experienced significant development and a general reduction in poverty, the overall development in Sub-Saharan Africa has been poorer than the rest of the world.1 The 2010 Human Development Report illustrates how the Sub-Saharan Africa region demonstrates the lowest figures for human development in the world, across various dimensions (UNDP 2010). Rates of growth have generally been lower and income inequality higher, as well as improvements in life expectancy, literacy and general poverty reduction generally has been lower in Africa than in other regions in the world (Englebert 2000; Van de Walle 2009). Many scholars today argue that the reason for this development is a consequence of the low quality of public institutions in many African countries (cf. Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson 2001; 2003; Bigsten and Durevall 2004; Diamond 2004; Rodrik, Subramanian and Trebbi 2004; Van de Walle 2009; World Bank 1989; 1997; 2005).