The auditors should therefore advice the government on the impacts of their operations on the public and on other improvements that can be made to maximize on the service delivery. In pursuing their taxation policies and fiscal policies, the auditors need to offer appropriate advice to the executive to ensure that the policies improve economic performance and improve the welfare of the society. Government expenses should improve the economic performance and ensure stability in the financial markets. If auditors provide technical advice to the governments, stability and better management will be realized hence improving the welfare of the citizens.
The management of public resources has been flooded by corruption and theft. This calls for need to conduct forensic audit with the aim of determining the illegal and abusive use of public resources Marr 96.
In forensic auditing, auditors use auditing procedures and knowledge to detect the deliberate actions by officers to siphon public resources for their personal interests. In cases where huge public resources have been diverted in illegal ways, the auditors will have the obligation to institute such procedures to reduce losses and inefficiencies in the management of public finances. In the event that such procedures fail to detect the illegal acts, the public will risk losing vast amount of resources and threatening economic growth. Corruption and other illegal crimes can also result into destabilization of the financial markets.
Auditors also have the important mandate of deterrence. The presence of auditors will make the help in reducing the chances of corruption and promote good public finance management. Auditors' actions deter the occurrences of risk by evaluating the controls of existing functions and those proposed for new functions Kumar and Sharma 314.
Similarly, auditors have the role of assessing the organizational risk that is able to increase the risk factors. In addition, auditors are helpful in deterring fraud occurrence by reviewing the likely changes in legislation, rules, and procedures. Finally, the role of deterring fraud and abuses is through reviewing contracts to determine conflicts of interests. Deterrence could also be made possible from the previous successful detection of fraud and losses. If there is, a history of successful uncovering of fraudulent and negligent losses, government officials would their best to deter the occurrences of new losses and fraud. This would require that auditors involved in an engagement are highly qualified and experienced in order to ensure successful conduct of audit processes.
The insight role of auditors is important in the public sector auditing. By evaluating government, programs tend policies and determining which ones are best, auditors assist in ensuring best practices. They will promote vertical and horizontal benchmarking within the government departments and sectors to ensure that there is improvement in the performance of the departmental performance. The audit process helps in institutionalizing learning by offering feedback and altering policies. Through audits, descriptions of problems, resources accompanied with useful recommendations helps stakeholders in rethinking and restructuring their operations for desired improvement of service delivery Nicoll 45()
Foresight role is also a very important function that is performed by public sector auditing. In forecasting auditors aim at establishing trends from the previous activities in order to take, necessary actions that will help the public sector sail future opportunities and threats. The current society experiences profound changes in the environment that dictates...
Retrieved at http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/EROPA/UNPAN014284.pdf. Accessed on 30 May, 2005 Pearson Des. 2000. "Contemporary Issues in Public Sector Accountability: New Challenges for Accountability." 22 January. Retrieved at http://www.audit.wa.gov.au/pubs/ipaa23022000.html. Accessed on 30 May, 2005 Setting the Course: Integrating Conformance with Performance." 2000. September, 7. Retrieved at http://www.ag.gov.au/agd/WWW/attorneygeneralHome.nsf/Page/Speeches_2000_Speeches_Setting_the_Course:_Integrating_Conformance_with_PerformanceAccessed on 30 May, 2005 Sozzani, Joseph "Privatization in the United States and Australia: A Comparative Analysis of the Modern Movement in Corrections." Retrieved at http://www.bond.edu.au/law/blr/vol13-1/Sozzani.pdf. Accessed on 30
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