ABSTRACT
Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be
counted.
(Sir George Pickering, cited by Garfield, 1986: 156)
The previous chapter discussed the growing importance of operational auditing in
the public sector but it is not just the responsibility of auditors to assess value for
money and identify improvements. As Coombs and Jenkins put it: ‘The achievement
of value for money by a public manager is no longer seen as a virtue but as a necessity’
(2002: 264). This chapter discusses issues relating to the measurement of performance,
value and value for money in six sections.
