The Impact of Performance Audits

We are pleased to release our latest Discussion Paper: The Impact of Performance Audits: Defining, Measuring and Reporting Impact.

Questions about the impact of performance audits are as old as the practice itself. In this paper, we focus on three key questions:

• What is meant by impact?
• How do audit institutions measure and report the impact of their performance audits?
• What actions are audit institutions taking to increase their impact?

To answer these questions, we have drawn from:

• A review of the literature published on performance auditing around the world over the last 25 years;
• A series of interviews with 34 senior performance auditors from Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States; and
• An analysis of recent annual reports from 22 Canadian public sector audit institutions (municipal, provincial, and federal).

By combining these information sources, our latest Discussion Paper provides a valuable synthesis of the knowledge available on the impact of performance audits. We hope that this Discussion Paper will inspire public sector audit institutions in Canada and abroad to continue to develop and adopt good practices to measure and report their impact.

“An excellent paper. Very valuable. A very informative read with some excellent ideas.”

—Ken Hughes, Auditor General, City of Ottawa

“The discussion paper is thorough and provides useful examples of current practices.”

—Evangeline Colman-Sadd, Auditor General, Halifax Regional Municipality

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