AAAJ
14,3
278
Accounting, Auditing &
Accountability Journal,
Vol. 14 No. 3, 2001, pp. 278-310.
# MCB University Press, 0951-3574
Received March 2000
Revised May 2000
Accepted September
2000
In the name of accountability
State auditing, independence and new
public management
Yves Gendron and David J. Cooper
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and
Barbara Townley
Edinburgh University, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
Keywords Auditing, Local government, Financial management, Accountability, Canada
Abstract This article investigates the role of the state auditor in Alberta. An analysis of the
Office of the Auditor General of Alberta's annual reports shows that the role of the Office has
significantly changed to promote and encourage the implementation in the public sector of a
particular type of accountability informed by new public management. The authors argue that the
Office has increased its power to influence politicians and public servants about the merits of its
specific understanding of what accountability should be. However, as the Office becomes more
powerful, it also becomes more vulnerable to complaints about a lack of independence from the
executive. Indeed, the Office is now so closely associated with new public management that we
believe that it is difficult for the Office to sustain the claim that it is able to provide independent
assessments of public-sector administration.
1. Introduction
Auditing is a crucial component of most modernist conceptions of
accountability since it legitimates the information on which formal, financial
accountability rests (Power, 1997). It is unsurprising, therefore, that the public
are interested in the credibility of auditors and the audit profession. Auditor
independence is important to maintain credibility and legitimacy. Concerns
about ``audit expectation gaps'' (Humphrey and Moizer, 1990; Sikka et al., 1998)
are significant partly because of concerns about independence.
In the private sector, concerns are increasingly raised about independence of
auditors who, by providing increased levels of management advisory services
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The authors thank Warwick Funnell, Joane Martel, Janet Morrill, Steven Salterio, and the two
reviewers for their helpful comments, as well as participants at the following: the 2000
Conference on Government Accountability and the Role of the Auditor General held at the
University of Alberta; 2000 Annual Conference of the Canadian Academic Accounting
Association; 1999 Critical Perspectives on Accounting Conference; 1999 Conference of the
European Accounting Association; 1998 University of Alberta Critical Accounting and
Management Workshop; and April 1999 seminar organized by the Association Canadienne-
FrancËaise pour l'Avancement des Sciences, chapitre de l'Alberta. The authors also acknowledge
the work of Vaughan Radcliffe who stimulated us to examine the reports of the Auditor General
of Alberta. Furthermore, while the authors gratefully acknowledge the help of members of the
Office of the Auditor General and of various government Departments, they are not responsible
for the opinions expressed here; the paper only reflects the authors' point of view. The authors
also acknowledge the financial support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
and the Certified General Accountants of Alberta.