ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an introduction to the cornerstones of public sector audit. The independence of any auditor commissioned, whether that auditor is an external consultant or any public sector oversight body, is a fundamental tenet of all audit examinations. Key sources of all Treasury requirements for public sector accountability and expenditure management are contained within the 'Green Book', and the 'Orange Book'. While the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) does, in the majority of cases, examine reports made by the National Audit Office (NAO), its powers extend wider than that and the PAC can examine any aspect of public sector expenditure it wishes. Hard services are those services that make a building function and relate to engineering and building works. Statutory requirements are legislation that demands specific actions. Micro/macro audit examinations are those that take a single piece of audit data and place that single piece of data in its context within the contract.
