State Audit: Developments in Public Accountability

416 Pages·1981·44.276 MB·English

by  B. Geist (eds.)

STATE AUDIT
The function of state audit is an ancient and respected branch of state
administration, an indispensable link in the process of government. Its
duties and privileges are embedded, in many countries, in the consti
tutional framework. It is difficult to imagine a well-functioning satis
factory system of state administration without the rigorous public
accountability that state audit ensures.
In spite of the increasing scope of its activities the subject has not yet
developed the body of professional literature that it deserves. During the
past quarter of a century state audit has broken away from exclusive
concern with the more traditional function of auditing of accounts and
auditing for regularity. More and more state auditors deal with matters
of economy and efficiency, and the evaluation of government program
mes at a high level.
To fill the void this book is devoted to the exploration of basic
principles of state audit, as well as to describing and analyzing central
aspects of its activities. It includes contributions on the role and
functions of state audit in the constitutional and administrative
structure of the state, the analysis of state audit in defined fields of
activities, such as public enterprises, as well as on the problem of
methodology and technique.
The book is intended to interest a wide range of readers: legislators
and their staff, government and public administrators, scholars and
students in the fields of public administration and finance, as well as
auditors and public accountants. Since the diverse forms of internal
audit are, to a considerable extent, patterned upon the working
principles, methodologies and techniques of state audit, the contents of
the book will also be of interest to auditors in the municipal, corporate
and private sector.
Also by B. Geist
DECISIONS IN CRISIS: ISRAEL, 1967, 1973 (with M. Brecher)
STATE AUDIT
Developments in Public
Accountability
Edited by
B. Geist
© State of Israel, State Comptroller's Office 1981
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1981
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
without permission
First published 1981 by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
London and Basingstoke
Companies and representatives
throughout the world
ISBN 978-1-349-04668-3 ISBN 978-1-349-04666-9 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-04666-9
This book is edited and published in honour of
Dr I. E. Nebenzahl, the State Comptroller
and Commissioner for Complaints from the
Public (Ombudsman) of Israel
Contents
Notes on the Contributors ix
Preface B. Geist
XV
Foreword: Dr Yitzhak Nebenzahl, State Comptroller of Israel
Yitzhak Oren (Nadel) xix
PART I PRINCIPLES OF STATE AUDIT
State Audit: An Introduction B. Geist 3
2 Reform in the Field of Public Accountability and Audit: A Progress
Report E. Leslie Normanton 23
3 The Constitutional Position of Supreme Audit Institutions with
Special Reference to the Federal Republic of Germany Hans
Schafer 46
4 Independence of State Audit Joseph Pois 70
5 Bureaucracy, the Bureaucratic Auditor, and the Ombudsman: An
Ideal-Type Analysis Larry B. Hill 83
6 Bureaucracy and State Audit Van Ballew and Paul Frishkoff 122
7 New Directions in State Audit Gerald E. Caiden 136
8 Corruption and State Auditing: the Politics of Indignation
Hillel Levine 156
9 Internal and External Audit John A. Edds 164
10 State Audit in Communist Countries Richard Szawlowski 183
PART II METHODOLOGY AND TECHNIQUES
11 Auditing Efficiency and Economy Ellsworth H. Morse, Jr 199
12 Effectiveness Auditing in Sweden G. Rune Berggren 217
13 Electronic Data Processing (EDP) and State Audit
Elise G. Jancura 239
PART III STATE AUDIT IN SELECTED FIELDS
14 A Budget for All Seasons: Why the Traditional Budget Lasts
Aaron Wildavsky 253
15 Auditing the Budget Hadassah Weisbrod 269
16 Audit of Government Ministries Renana Gutman 285
17 State Audit of Public Enterprises in Austria Jorg Kandutsch 300
18 Control at the Margins of Government: the State Comptroller and
Public Corporations of Israel Ira Sharkansky 318
vii
viii Contents
19 On Auditing Bilateral Development Aid: the Case of
Germany Horst Grafe 337
20 Local Government Audits: Obstacles and Opportunities
Michael H. Granofand Albert L. Beerman 349
ADDENDUM
21 Law and Morality in Jewish Tradition Shalom A/beck 365
Index 387
Notes on the Contributors
SHALOM ALBECK is Visiting Professor at Yale University (1979). Previously
he served as Dean of the Law School, Bar-Ilan University, Israel (1976-8), where
he is, since 1973, Professor of Talmud. He served as member of the Board of
Trustees, and member of the Executive Council and Standing Committee of the
Board of Bar-Ilan (1976-8). He is the author of numerous articles and
encyclopedia items dealing with Jewish law, and is noted for his books: General
Principles of the Law of Tort in the Talmud (Hebrew, 1965); The Law of Property
and Contract in the Talmud (Hebrew, 1976). He received his Ph.D in Jewish
history at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1959).
VAN BALLEW is Assistant Professor of Accounting at the University of
Oregon. He is a member of the American Accounting Association, the Academy
of Management, and the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He
received his Ph.D from the University of Houston for his dissertation dealing
with Organization Size, Technology and Formalization in Professional Accounting
Organizations.
ALBERT L. BEERMAN is a partner at Alexander Grant & Co., a firm of
certified public accountants, in Austin, Texas, and a specialist in governmental
accounting and auditing. He has lectured widely on his practical expetjence in the
field of public auditing.
G. RUNE BERGGREN is Auditor-General of Sweden and Director of the
Swedish National Audit Bureau since 1973. He also serves as chairman of
the Board of the Swedish Agency for Administrative Development, member of
the Board of the Stockholm Stock Exchange as well as of the Royal Swedish
Academy of Engineering Sciences. He served as Under-Secretary of Labour and
Housing (1971-3) and chairman of the Government Delegation for Financing
Housing Construction and the Commission for the Arctic Areas of the Nordic
Countries.
GERALD E. CAIDEN is Professor at the School of Public Administration,
University of Southern California. Since 1975 he has worked as consultant for
the World Bank, the Government of Mexico, International Ombudsman
Committee, American Bar Association, American Ombudsman Association,
Los Angeles County Economy and Efficiency Commission, National Institute of
Public Administration and the Government of Bangladesh. He is the author of
ix
Notes on the Contributors
X
numerous articles on public administration and his books include The Com
monwealth Bureaucracy ( 1967), Administrative Reform ( 1969), and The Dynamics
of Public Administration (1971). He received his Ph.D in Economics from the
University of London.
JOHN A. EDDS is Associate Professor, School of Administrative Studies,
Brock University, Region Niagara, and a member of the Planning Committee of
the Toronto Chapter of the Institute of Internal Auditors. He previously served
as manager of Auditing and Systems of the Ontario Paper Co. (1957-73), and
has published many articles on auditing and management. He is the author of
Auditing for Management (1971) and Problems and Cases in Internal Auditing
with P. Phatak (1973).
PAUL FRISHKOFF is Associate Professor of Accounting, College of Business,
University of Oregon, where he previously served as department head (1977-8).
He also works as expert witness for law firms on audit litigation and consultant
for several CPA firms. He received his Ph.D at the Graduate School of Business,
Stanford University. He is the author (with C. Luneski) of Some Questions in
Graduate Accounting Theory (2nd edn., 1979) and numerous articles and papers
on accountancy.
BENJAMIN GEIST is Deputy Director-General of the State Comptroller's
Office of Israel, and a lecturer in foreign policy at the Hebrew University,
Jerusalem. For the past ten years he has been active in the training and
development activities of INTOSAI, the International Organization of Supreme
Audit Institutions. He participated in all, and planned some, of the inter-regional
INTOSAI seminars, beginning with the first one in 1971, where he lectured and
prepared working papers on various subjects of state auditing. He is co-author
(with Michael Brecher) of Decisions in Crisis: Israel, 1967, 1973 (1980); his last
paper on state audit, "The Audit of Public Enterprises", was submitted to the
1Oth Congress of INTOSAI. He is editor of Iyunim, the professional journal of
state auditing in Israel. He received his Ph.D from the Hebrew University,
Jerusalem.
HORST GRAFE is a senior member of the Court of Audit of the Federal
Republic of Germany. He has lectured widely on state audit in INTOSAI as well
as European seminars. He has published articles on state audit, among them
articles dealing with the European Court of Audit.
MICHAEL H. GRANOF is Associate Professor of Accounting at the Univer
sity of Texas. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public
Accountants, American Accounting Society and the Association of Government
Accountants. His books include: How to Cost Your Labour Contract (1973); and
Financial Accounting: Principles and Issues (1977). He received his Ph.D at the
University of Michigan (1972).