A Research Trend in Performance Auditing for Not-for-profit Organizations: Empirical Evidence from RRV

Abstract

The objective behind this paper is to test whether a research-based approach has been significantly used in performance auditing made by the Swedish National Audit Office (RRV). Based on the research findings, the paper aims at rooting the concepts and techniques of scientific research in the audit theory and highlights its merit of becoming an integral part of the planning and implementing stages of performance auditing. To accomplish this end a two-phased approach has been used. The first is an exploratory survey to a number of 1997 audit reports issued by the Swedish National Audit Office to ascertain whether they have raised questions and answered them in a way similar to that of researchers. The second is a statistical test made to 34 audit reports randomly selected from the 1997 reports mentioned above to determine whether the concepts and techniques of research have been significantly used by these reports. The paper has found out that, empirical research techniques and concepts have been consistently used in conducting and writing performance auditing reports. The frequency of using the term 'study' rather than 'audit' is quite noticeable in all audit reports written by the RRV.