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This chapter discusses various definitions of the concept of performance auditing. It suggests that performance audit can be understood by clarifying its distinction with other related activities, such as financial or compliance audit, inspection or programme evaluation. Another way is by looking at the works performed by SAIs. The most widely accepted definitions connect performance auditing with the review of the three Es, which are economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of public bodies or programmes.

This chapter sums up the key findings of this study on the performance audit of SAIs in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France. It summarizes the answers to the questions in previous chapters, which include the nature of performance audit work, auditing criteria, auditing methods, and auditing craft. It speculates on the future of performance audit and identifies certain strategic choices and constraints that may be faced by those who wish to develop performance audit further.

This chapter deals with the outs of performance audit or the products that normally appear at the end of the performance of audit investigations. The analysis of the SAIs in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France reveals that they have clearly made efforts to improve the adaptation of their products for different audiences. In all the SAIs, the number, variation, and composition of audit reports have increased and they are more actively communicated.

This chapter provides an overview of what is actually being done by SAIs. It compares the audit topics covered by the SAIs in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France in order to understand the trends and changes in the focus of performance audit across SAIs. It also highlights the independence of choice that SAIs can exercise and discusses varying strategies that individual SAIs appear to have adopted in order to select their portfolios of study.

This chapter evaluates the impact of performance audit work undertaken by the SAIs in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France. The findings reveal that performance audits have led to changed in government activities and in many cases the responses to recommendations in audit reports resulted in substantial savings in public funds. The result also indicated that the impact of SAIs' work and their concern to demonstrate their impact have both increased from the 1980s to the 1990s.

This chapter explains the objective of this book, which is to study the practice of performance audits and relate it to contemporary development public management. This book evaluates audits carried out by Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI) in Great Britain, Sweden, The Netherlands, Finland, and France. It highlights the need for more publications that offer sustained and independent analysis of the audit process and stresses the importance of exploring the connections between performance auditing and public-sector management reform.

This chapter discusses the criteria used by SAIs in performance audit of public management. The general basis of public auditing is the three E's: economy, efficiency, and effectiveness. However, more detailed or more specific criteria may be used to reflect the desired result of the audit. This chapter suggests that there may be philosophical grounds for arguing for the pursuit of precise criteria for the judgement of government policies, programmes, and organizations.

This chapter examines the management–audit interface and the implications of public management reforms for SAIs. It suggests that the interlinked development of management reform and performance audit is not restricted to budgetary matters. These connections may come in the form of management reform leading to the changes in the public sector, and management reform complicating or simplifying the pattern of organizations to the audited.

This chapter seeks to explain the poor performance of public policy tools in Turkey through strategic planning and performance auditing utilising the “boomerang effect” concept mainly used in communication studies. For this analysis the study follows the steps of the heuristic public policy cycle model. After clarifying the transfer process of strategic planning and performance auditing to the Turkish administrative system, the study focuses on the implementation of these policy tools. Demonstrating the poor performance of these tools with reference to some empirical studies, the chapter discusses four reasons of non-implementation of policy tools, namely the exposure of political power to public scrutiny, Turkish administrative culture, lack of domestic contribution and the leverage power of international and regional organizations.

This chapter provides an overview of how the Scottish Information Commissioner evaluates the country’s public authorities in terms of dealing with complaints from applicants requesting for information. The Commissioner may assess whether a public authority is following good practice; if not, he may give it a practice recommendation. An authority that fails to comply with the provisions in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA), such as not responding on time or failing to inform the applicant of the right of appeal, may be cited in the decision notice, even if the authority is not required to take any action in respect of that specific failure. In such cases, the Commissioner may conduct ‘technical investigations’ and require the authority to remedy the failing by complying with the request for information. The revised Code of Practice includes good practice guidance on both FOISA and the Environmental Information Regulations. This chapter discusses the Commissioner’s programme of practice assessments, or performance audits, of public authorities.

In this contribution, a description is provided of the role, methods and recent developments of policy analysis in two High Councils of State – the Council of State and the Court of Audits – as well as the National Ombudsman in the Netherlands. Special attention is given to the interplay between policy analysis carried out by – or on behalf of – the ministries and the work of the High Councils. In addition, the ambition will be discussed to be responsive to society’s needs and the use of open data and new media.