Public auditing: What impact does the quality of the institutional framework have on the level of corruption?
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00208523231155385 |
| Author | Eriole Zita Nonki Tadida |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Public auditing: What
impact does the quality of
the institutional
framework have on the
level of corruption?
Eriole Zita Nonki Tadida
Laval University, Québec, Canada
Abstract
Supreme audit institutions (SAIs) are a component of a nation’s institutional system. This
article defines the concept of an institutional anti-corruption system centered on the
SAI through four main characteristics: independence, accountability, mandate and collab-
oration. The article aims to assess the impact that the quality of the anti-corruption sys-
tem has on perceived levels of corruption. Data from the 2019 International Budget
Partnership Open Budget Survey covering 117 countries are used for this purpose.
The regression results show that the quality of the institutional anti-corruption system
centered on the SAI is associated with a low level of perceived corruption. However,
other elements must be implemented to create an anti-corruption environment, such
as citizens’involvement as controlling actors.
Points for practitioners
It is important that policy makers recognize and leverage the potential of SAIs in redu-
cing corruption. Contemporary governance and the complexity of corruption require
the protection of SAI’s independence, but also call for the establishment of collaborative
mechanisms that engage civil society and the media.
Keywords
public finance, national integrity system, supreme audit institution, institutional anti-
corruption framework, governance
Corresponding author:
Eriole Zita Nonki Tadida,Centre for Public Policy Analysis, Laval University, Pavillon Charles-De Koninck1030,
avenue des Sciences-Humaines, Quebec City, Canada QC G1V 0A6.
Email: Eriole-zita.nonki-tadida.1@ulaval.ca
Article
International
Review of
Administrative
Sciences
International Review of Administrative
Sciences
2023, Vol. 89(4) 1131–1146
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/00208523231155385
journals.sagepub.com/home/ras
Introduction
Public finances audit is essential for the financial health of governments. Modern govern-
ance requires mechanisms to ensure the effective management of these finances, in order
to avoid the risks of usurpation, such as corruption. While responsibility for ensuring the
integrity of public finances lies with the supreme audit institutions (SAIs), responsibility
for countering corruption goes beyond them. As an inherently chameleonic phenomenon,
the fight against corruption calls for a holistic approach. Transparency International has
enshrined this approach in its notion of a “National Integrity System”.
The National Integrity System is composed of 11 interrelated pillars or governance
bodies, working in synergy to reduce corruption. Most countries have such bodies,
which interact on various issues. We refer to this array of pillars and their operating
rules, established with the aim of reducing corruption, as the institutional anti-corruption
framework.
Several studies show, in broad terms, the important role of political and democratic
institutions in reducing corruption. Among others, Stapenhurst et al. (2006) demonstrate
the essential contribution of parliaments as law-making and executive oversight actors.
Imbeau and Stapenhurst (2019) show that the resource capacity of parliamentary over-
sight committees is associated with lower levels of corruption. Also, according to
Lederman et al. (2006), a long exposure to democracy achieves the same result, as
does decentralization (Tchitchoua and Onana, 2020). This paper builds on this literature,
but also narrows its scope to a more specific exploration, because the quality of relation-
ships established between the different governance bodies within an institutional frame-
work influences the impact that institutions have on corruption. This, to our knowledge, is
neither conceptualized nor measured in previous studies.
The angle of analysis places the SAI at the center of the framework. The aim is to study
the impact of the quality of the relationship between the SAI and other governance bodies
of a given country on its perceived levels of corruption. Although the contribution of
SAIs to the fight against corruption is not unanimous in the literature, they are generally
acknowledged to have preventive and detection roles (McDevitt, 2020). To fulfil these
roles effectively, Santiso (2006) and Henderson (2019) lay down the crucial nature of
the relationships that SAIs should establish with other government institutions or
social partners, but also certain principles that need to be respected, such as independ-
ence, a clear mandate and cooperation. So what effect does the quality of a
SAI-centered institutional framework have on the perceived level of corruption?
Answering this question provides a new contribution to anti-corruption strategies, as
the Transparency International index shows that corruption is still very much present.
We argue that, as the quality of the SAI-centered institutional framework increases, the
perceived level of corruption decreases. Based on regression analyses conducted on a
sample of 117 countries, the results show that the quality of such a framework has a posi-
tive and statistically significant effect on the perception of corruption.
The rest of the paper is divided into five parts. The first part shows the importance of a
SAI-centered governance framework to fight corruption. The second part presents the con-
struction of the concept of quality of the institutional anti-corruption framework centered
1132 International Review of Administrative Sciences 89(4)
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