Foreword

A century of public accountability: Reflections on the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General

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A search of the Irish State Administration Database (ISAD, <ext-link ext-link-type="uri" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" xlink:href="http://www.isad.ie">www.isad.ie</ext-link>), which records the origins, life cycle, policy domain and functions of all central public organisations since the foundation of the Irish state over a century ago, reveals that, following the formative and turbulent year of 1922, the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General was the first new agency formally established in 1923. The primacy given to what we might now refer to as a supreme audit institution (SAI) for the public sector reflects the importance of financial control to the effective functioning and legitimacy of the executive organs of the nascent state. In this paper we analyse the changing range and scope of functions undertaken by the Comptroller and Auditor General in its first century. We examine first the sustained growth in the number and type of public bodies subject to Comptroller and Auditor General scrutiny. Second, we look at the broadening in scope of audit functions beyond the traditional concerns of regularity, ensuring the money was spent for the purposes for which it was given (financial and compliance audit), to encompass wider values such as efficiency, economy and effectiveness and even performance, more broadly conceived. Finally, as well as the instrumental perspective on the role of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s Office, we reflect on the key relationships and cultural and symbolic dimensions of the Office’s work across time. From this analysis we draw some conclusions about the nature of financial control in the contemporary state, as compared with the early Irish state.
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Ireland’s first state agency: A century of change in the range and scope of functions of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General

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In recent years the role of the internal audit function has gained increasing prominence and is now seen as a cornerstone in the overall governance of public sector bodies. This article explores the experience of 127 public sector bodies and illuminates key insights for public sector bodies seeking to realise more meaningful results from the efforts currently directed towards the internal audit function. Among the most significant research findings is the evidence that the function is not viewed by its most key stakeholders as a primary driver of continuous improvement. This finding identifies a disconnect between the real-world practice of internal audit function and the definition of the function across relevant academic literature, public policy and practitioner guidance. The author concludes that an overemphasis on assurance activities can be to the detriment of the other value-add functions which the internal audit function can deliver. While currently widely viewed as a divorced function, the real value of internal audit will only be realised by integrating it within the organisation. Such integration will allow the sharing of enterprise-wide learning, thus enabling the function to become a primary driver of a permanent culture of continuous improvement.
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Making internal audit count

One hundred years of the Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General in the newspapers

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Strong parliaments hold the government, its departments and the wider public administration to account. Such parliaments are built on strong and active committee systems. For a long time, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was the only oversight committee consistently in place in the Houses of the Oireachtas. This article explains how the committee system has been gradually expanded and strengthened, and how its remit to oversee the actions of the government is wide. It explains the institutional factors that lead to the continued prominence of the PAC, including how it draws on the expert, independent reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General to conduct its oversight work, while noting that the PAC still faces the same challenges as other committees concerning a wide remit, finite resources and the multiple motivations of its membership. The work of the PAC is described and placed in the context of the financial scrutiny cycle which is being developed in the Houses of the Oireachtas. This is followed by a discussion of how the PAC manages its potentially wide remit to conduct <italic>ex post</italic> financial scrutiny of public expenditure, and the balance between what is referred to as ‘police-patrol’, rather than ‘fire-alarm’, scrutiny and the procedural changes which are designed to ensure that the PAC (with the authority of the Dáil) can examine and hold actors to account for the expenditure of any public money.
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Parliamentary oversight: Oireachtas committees and the Dáil Committee on Public Accounts in the twenty-first century

The origins of the Committee on Public Accounts and its engagement with the Comptroller and Auditor General

Synopsis of research undertaken by Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General officials as part of the Institute of Public Administration’s MEconSc in Policy Analysis

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 72 (2024): Issue 2 (May 2024)

Volume 72 (2024): Issue 1 (February 2024) Special title: Review of developments, structure and management in the public sector 2023

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Volume 71 (2023): Issue 1 (February 2023) REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS, STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 2022

Volume 70 (2022): Issue 4 (December 2022)

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Volume 70 (2022): Issue 1 (February 2022) REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTS, STRUCTURE AND MANAGEMENT IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR 2021

Volume 69 (2021): Issue 4 (December 2021)

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Volume 63 (2015): Issue 4 (December 2015)

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Administration

 PRINT ISSN: 0001-8325ONLINE ISSN: 2449-9471  Administration is the peer-reviewed journal of the Institute of Public Administration of Ireland. It has been published quarterly since 1953. As the principal journal concerned with Irish public administration and its development, it seeks to combine original scholarship on public administration from a variety of disciplines with the insights and experiences of practitioners.  Rejection Rate   80%   Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 