Abu Hasan, Haslida (2010) The impact of external audit and use of resources assessment on local authorities : a study on Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. PhD thesis, University of Sheffield.
Abstract
External audit has a long history and used to be one of many inspection activities performed
on local authorities. It has been used to provide assurance concerning the reliability of the
accounts of an authority and on the legality of the underlying transactions. However, since
the 1980s, it has been used in a variety of contexts which include new and intense accountgiving
and verification requirements. Governments resort to auditing to secure local authority
accountability to their various stakeholders. External auditors' work for local authorities in
England is extended beyond certification audit to cover the Use of Resources assessment, a
component included in the Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA) regime. The
inspection activities were performed by auditors even though the coverage of inspection
goes beyond traditional definitions of auditing. The assessment regime of UoR gone through
various changes and alterations every year since it was first introduced in 2002 and subject
to greater alterations for assessment in 2009. Many researchers have highlighted the issues
of extensive and high cost external audit but not many have attempted to discover what is
going on in the field. This study fills the gaps found in literatures, exploring what is going on
at local authorities and their perception on the external audit performed on them. Published
data were analysed before developing structured interview questions. Responses were
received from the Director/Head of Finance from 20 local authorities in Yorkshire and The
Humber region and 19 were interviewed. This research contributes to the understanding
and designing of assessment process covered in external audit practice at local authorities.
It helps analyse the impact, perceptions and expectations of local authorities as to how much
the external audit has helped and in what ways it could be improved. Different views were
shared among the local authorities on the benefit of external audit and how it could be better
performed. To conclude, the extensive assessment bears some positive drivers for
improvement but should be more carefully designed to include feedback from the auditees
and provide a longer time period for one assessment regime to help local authorities to fully
respond and adapt its processes. These would help local authorities to reflect the
improvement at their organisation rather than in numbers alone.
Metadata
Awarding institution: | University of Sheffield |
---|---|
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Management School (Sheffield) |
Identification Number/EthosID: | uk.bl.ethos.522492 |
Depositing User: | EThOS Import Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 25 Nov 2016 13:44 |
Last Modified: | 25 Nov 2016 13:44 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:etheses.whiterose.ac.uk:14538 |
You do not need to contact us to get a copy of this thesis. Please use the 'Download' link(s) above to get a copy.
You can contact us about this thesis. If you need to make a general enquiry, please see the Contact us page.