ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to follow the trends and to draw some conclusions about how evaluation and auditing relate to the contemporary budget process. Auditing is associated with the institution of the General Accounting Office, even though for many years most detailed audit work has been done internally by agencies and departments themselves. The linking of evaluation with the budget process implies that evaluation results will influence funding levels. Budget decision making has become a very messy process in the United States. Many domestic programs that are either fully or partially financed with federal funds are carried out by other levels of government. The audit tradition in the federal government predated the modem budget process, and indeed went back to the founding of the nation. The development of the methodologies of evaluation coincided with a burst of new activities for social purposes under the auspices of President Johnson’s “Great Society” programs.
