AUDIT OR EVALUATION? A NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE VFM STUDY
| Published date | 01 December 1994 |
| Author | SIMON ROBERTS,CHRISTOPHER POLLITT |
| Date | 01 December 1994 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9299.1994.tb00807.x |
AUDIT
OR
EVALUATION? A NATIONAL AUDIT
OFFICE VFM STUDY
SIMON ROBERTS AND CHRISTOPHER
POLLI’IT
This
article presents a case study of an important but relatively neglected aspect
of
the
British policy process
-
the Value for Money
(VIM)
studies undertaken by the National
Audit Office. It analyses
in
detail the conduct
of
one particular study, including the
reactions
of
the audited bodies and the parliamentary activity which followed the pub-
lication
of
the
NAO
report.
The case is then used to illuminate what appear to
be
some
more general characteristics
of
the
NAO’s
approach. It
is
concluded that
NAO
VFM
work
marks an important step beyond traditional audit
for
regularity and/or economy, and
that it significantly enhances democratic accountability. Yet at the same time
this
work
falls short of a full-blooded evaluation. Indeed,
it
appears to take place within quite
prominent constraints, some
of
which were built into the legislation
setting
up
the
NAO
but others
of
which could conceivably be eased, even without new statutory authority.
BACKGROUND
Remarkably little academic material has been published concerning the Na-
tional Audit Office
(NAO)
-
at least in public administration circles. Although its
creation, in
1983,
represented the outcome
of
two
decades
of
lobbying for
effective and accountable state audit (Garrett
1986),
its subsequent activities
have figured only rarely
in
scholarly journals. In particular the new powers
given to its head, the Comptroller and Auditor General
(C
&
AG)
to investigate
matters of economy, efficiency and effectiveness (not merely propriety and
regularity) have remained under-discussed. Compared with the attention given
to (and actively sought by) the Audit Commission, the
NAO
has gone about its
business quietly and has been little disturbed by prying academics.
Yet in many ways the
NAO
is a remarkable and unique institution. It was
given birth by a private member’s bill, somewhat against the initial inclinations
of
the then government (including, apparently, those
of
Mrs Thatcher herself).
It stands alongside the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration
(Om-
budsman) as that constitutionally unusual creature in the
UK
-
a well-staffed
administrative unit bearing significant statutory powers
of
investigation yet
responsible directly to the legislature and not to the executive.
Simon Roberts is a Research Assistant
and
Christopher Pollitt
is
Dean
of
Faculty
of
Sorial Sciences,
Brunel University.
Public
Administration
Vol. 72 Winter
1994
(527-549)
0
Basil Blackwell
Ltd.
1994,
108
Cowley
Road, Oxford
OX4
IF,
UK
and 238 Main Street, Cambridge,
MA
02142,
USA.
-
528
SIMON ROBERTS AND CHRISTOPHER
POLLIlT
AIMS
OF
THE ARTICLE
In
the following article we can cultivate only a modest fraction of
this
consid-
erable unploughed acreage. We focus on the approach which most forcefully
embodies the
C
&
AG's
new power to investigate economy, efficiency and
effectiveness
-
value for money studies or
VFM
(Gray and Jenkins
1993,
pp.
51-7).
We present a detailed case study of a
NAO
VFM
study that was undertaken
between 1989 and
1991.
One case study doth not a comprehensive analysis
make, but we hope that it can
be
illuminative and provocative of further
research and discussion. More specifically, our aims are:
a)
To
explore the technical advantages and limitations of the particular tech-
niques and methods used within
VFM;
b)
To
indicate the broader organizational and political influences which
shaped the selection of the particular topic for audit, the way the
VFM
work
was carried out and the reception the eventual report received from Parlia-
ment and government;
c) To illuminate key features of the relationships between the
NAO,
Parlia-
ment, the government and the particular bodies which are audited.
In
particular, to explore the scope for the
NAO
further to develop its role
beyond traditional regularity audit and towards providing Parliament and
public with an independent evaluation service.
The article is based on research carried out as part of a wider project, the
MEANS
programme, financed by the European Commission (Monnier and Toulemond
1993).
MEANS
is
a scientific programme undertaken by partner universities and
centres
in
France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK (Brunel's Department of
Government
is
the UK partner). Although the case study is but one part of this
much larger programme it appeared to the authors to be sufficiently self-
contained to be worth adapting for publication in the present free-standing
form.
METHODS
The case study was put together after a careful examination of the relevant
official documents and parliamentary papers. We also conducted a total of
13
interviews with officials of the
NAO,
The Welsh Office, the Welsh Development
Agency, the Development Board for Rural Wales and the Department of Trade
and Industry.
In
addition we interviewed four members of the Public Accounts
Committee and several academic experts
in
the field of regional economics and
geography.
THE CHOSEN STUDY
The
VFM
study we investigated was
Creating and Safeguarding
Jobs
in
Wales
(hereafter
CSJW
-
NAO
1991).
The
NAO
now generates about fifty such studies
63
Basil
Blackwell Ltd.
1994
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