Harvesting Public Audit Knowledge: Implications for Theory and Practice

Abstract

For over three decades international public policy has dictated that not‐for‐profit organisations achieve economy, efficiency and effectiveness or ‘value for money’ (VfM). Across the globe VfM performance audits are deployed in order to promote compliance with this objective. Despite consistent political discourse, the current literature lacks conceptual integration of the factors that affect performance information and use, which frustrates efforts to better understand the factors that inhibit the emergence of VfM. Using the lens of information processing theory (IPT) this paper systematically analyses VfM audit reports produced by the Comptroller and Auditor General, Ireland. The contribution categorises strategic, operational and tactical barriers that affect the motivation, opportunity and ability to process information related to value for money. A key implication is that effectiveness needs to be reframed in terms of service‐dominant (S‐D) logic and is thus defined as value co‐created by politicians, policy makers and public servants.