ABSTRACT
Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) throughout the world have increasingly considered the performance of public bodies as part of their examination of the use of public money. As one observer has put it, SAIs have “never before been so closely involved in the management of public bodies”. Performance audit has required SAIs to bring in staff with different backgrounds and skills outside their traditional field of accounting and audit, although the scale of the new influx and the type of skills imported have differed between SAIs. Performance audit has also required SAIs to undertake work with significantly less well-defined standards and perhaps more judgment expected than in financial attest work. The credibility of performance audit reports is crucial to the reputation of the SAIs producing them. And a number of SAIs have mandates requiring them to assess the success of programs and services, not merely how well the programs are being delivered.
