Enduring Fundamentals: Constitutional Accountability and Auditors-General in the Reluctant State.

Reformist governments in pursuing their own political interests have been prepared to put aside enduring understandings of constitutional accountability which emphasize the well-being of the entire community as the manifestation of substantive citizenship and replace it with more easily metricated forms of accountability. The assumption has been that the two forms of accountability are easily, rightly and necessarily substitutable for the other. Auditors-general and other independent officers continue to question the constitutional inconsistencies of these changes, sometimes at grave risk to their very existence. The accountability consequences of contracting out services with the private sector are of special concern to auditors-general.