Performance audit in Western Europe: trends and choices

Abstract This paper describes selected findings from the Performance Audit Project, a three year study of the development of performance audit (PA) in the supreme audit institutions (SAIs) of Finland, France, The Netherlands, Sweden and the UK. It describes changes in the methods and practices of auditors, and identifies the audit criteria most commonly applied. It also comments on the kinds of subject addressed, and the way in which the products of PA have changed over the last 15 years. Two types of analysis are then developed. First, there is a consideration of the differing roles which SAI PA appears to aspire to. It is suggested that each individual SAI has a slightly different “personality" in this respect. Second, it is argued that all SAIs face strategic choices concerning the further development of PA. Several alternative strategies are enumerated, and the potential benefits and dangers of each identified.