ABSTRACT
Although a great deal of attention is being given to the need for value for money auditing in the United Kingdom, far less consideration is being paid to the lessons that can be learnt from the practical exercises that have been undertaken so far, both here and elsewhere. As in so many other areas of management debate, apparently it is much easier to discuss what should be and how it should be done than what is being done, why it is being done and, perhaps most important of all, the practical consequences that have followed from it. Indeed in this area, as in others, even the most practical of people often appear reluctant to engage themselves with the intricacies of practice, preferring instead to conduct their discussions in the realms of what might be rather than in the world that is. Such preferences can have, and indeed have had, many unfortunate consequences however, not least because even the best intentions often give rise to a set of consequences that are very different from those hoped for or expected. If for no other reason than this, I think that it is of great importance to complement our discussions of what should be done in the value for money area with at least some consideration of the lessons that can be learnt from what has been done.
