Improving Fiscal Governance and Curbing Corruption: How Relevant are Autonomous Audit Agencies?

International Public Management Review, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2006

12 Pages Posted: 15 Dec 2006

See all articles by Carlos Santiso

Carlos Santiso

United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID); Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth, CIPPEC; Center for Democratic Governance, CGD, of Burkina Faso; African Development Bank; Inter-American Development Bank

Abstract

This research underscores the limits of institutional design and constitutional engineering for improving the performance of government auditing. External factors, such as the functioning of the national system of fiscal control, the cycle of legislative accountability and the balance of political powers, matter greatly. A critical and often dysfunctional link is that between the AAA and their main principal, the legislature, as mediated by the legislature's public accounts committee. This functional relationship is particularly important in the monocratic and collegiate models of external auditing where the autonomous audit agency acts as an advisory body to the legislature, such as in Argentina. It is a crucial relationship to enforce ex post government accountability in financial matters through the annual certification of public accounts and the discharge of government.

Keywords: Audit agencies, government accountability, public finance, financial governance, Latin America

JEL Classification: H11, H61, P16, P43

Suggested Citation

Santiso, Carlos, Improving Fiscal Governance and Curbing Corruption: How Relevant are Autonomous Audit Agencies?. International Public Management Review, Vol. 7, No. 2, 2006 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=951844

Carlos Santiso (Contact Author)

United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID) ( email )

Abercrombie House
Eaglesham Road, East Kilbride
Glasgow, G75 8EA
United Kingdom
+44 0 1355 84 4000 (Phone)
+44 0 1355 84 4099 (Fax)

HOME PAGE: http://www.dfid.gov.uk/

Center for the Implementation of Public Policies for Equity and Growth, CIPPEC ( email )

Argentina

Center for Democratic Governance, CGD, of Burkina Faso ( email )

Burkina Faso

African Development Bank ( email )

15 Avenue du Ghana
P.O.Box 323-1002
Tunis-Belvedère
Tunisia

HOME PAGE: http://www.afdb.org

Inter-American Development Bank ( email )

1300 New York Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20577
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.iadb.org

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