What are the required qualities of auditors in the public sector?

ABSTRACT

This paper adds to literature on financial audit in public sector organizations. The authors examined the effect of adapting a private sector audit body—the Board of Statutory Auditors (BoSA)—for use by Italian public healthcare organizations. The research objective was to explore whether the characteristics generally required of private sector audit bodies (independence, accounting and financial expertise, industry specialization, diligence, and institutional support) are relevant to the public sector. Information on these characteristics was collected through an online questionnaire and used to explain audit quality. The results show the relevance of accounting and financial expertise, as well as industry specialization. The authors call for further research on the need for auditor independence in a public service setting.

IMPACT

This paper contributes to the policy debate about financial audit systems in the public sector. It offers suggestions that regulators in different countries should find useful whenever private sector audit arrangements are introduced into the public sector and adapted to reflect its peculiarities. Regulators interested in improving audit quality should be aware of the key requirements that audit bodies and their members must meet.

Keywords:

• Accounting manipulation
• audit quality
• board of statutory auditors
• financial audit
• public sector

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).