Skip to main content
Kent Academic Repository

Keeping secrets? Or what government performance auditors might not need to know

Funnell, Warwick N. (2011) Keeping secrets? Or what government performance auditors might not need to know. Critical Perspectives on Accounting, 22 (7). pp. 714-721. ISSN 1045-2354. (doi:10.1016/j.cpa.2010.02.007) (The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided) (KAR id:28539)

The full text of this publication is not currently available from this repository. You may be able to access a copy if URLs are provided.
Official URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2010.02.007

Abstract

This paper examines the claims made in a recent paper in Critical Perspectives on Accounting by Vaughan Radcliffe about the way in which public sector auditors report their findings. Drawing upon the work of Taussig, he argues that while public sector auditors may know the truth, as may others, they choose not always to tell the truth in their reports and instead to treat what may be publicly unpalatable as a public secret. They modify their findings to ensure that these will be more acceptable to governments and, thereby, enhance their opportunity to influence government. These claims are shown in this paper to overstate the public sector auditor's response to difficult issues. Rather than keeping secrets, the contents of the auditor's reports may instead reflect the constitutional and institutional limitations in which they must work. Most importantly in most jurisdictions they are not to comment on matters of policy which are the domain of the government.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1016/j.cpa.2010.02.007
Uncontrolled keywords: Performance auditing; Public secrets; Public sector auditors
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Divisions: Divisions > Kent Business School - Division > Department of Accounting and Finance
Depositing User: Karen Finch
Date Deposited: 09 Dec 2011 15:43 UTC
Last Modified: 16 Nov 2021 10:06 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/28539 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

University of Kent Author Information

  • Depositors only (login required):

Total unique views for this document in KAR since July 2020. For more details click on the image.