A Study on the Introduction Process and the Method of the U.S.GAO Program Results Auditing

Research Project

Project/Area Number	07630131
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for General Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Accounting
Research Institution	Toho Gakuen Junior College
Principal Investigator	USHIRO Chiyo Toho Gakuen Junior College Commerce and Business Administartion Lecturer, 商経科, 講師 (50269669)
Project Period (FY)	1995
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 1995)
Budget Amount *help	¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000) Fiscal Year 1995: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Keywords	U.S.General Accounting Office / GAO / Program Results Audits / Performance Audits / Accountability / Government Corporation Control Act / Chief Financial Officers Act / Internal Auditing
Research Abstract	The U.S.GAO has audited on the Federal Government expenditures, by the method of performance auditing as well as financial auditning. And the former method has grown especially after 1960's. In this research project, the focuses are performance audiitiing and the introduction process and these methods. On the process of the performance auditing introduction, this research can point out that the performance auditing germ started already just before closing the second world war, though many articles wrote it started after the Economic Opportunity Amendment Act in 1967. Some grounds of this opinion are that the U.S.federal government tried to control strongly those government corporations, then the GAO started to audit the government corporations by the Government Corporation Control Act of 1945. After that, it expanded the auditing objects to the government agencies. But federal agencies did not have their agencies financial documents completely, so GAO could not accomplish any financial au … More dits. In spite of the situation, GAO had to furnish their responsibility. As the result of this, in substance, GAO did an original performance auditing. On the program result audits after the Economic Opportunity Amendment Act, especially on the concept of performance audit, it has changed that meaning. The purpose of performance audit is supplying information function of the federal agencies rather than the administration control function. And former function has grown up and has taken big position. In this process, GAO playd a major role in the development and passage of the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990. This law established a Chief Financial Officer in OMB and Chief Financial Officers in executive departments and major agencies. The Comptroller General and the Inspectors General were empowered to audit the financial statements of departments and agencies and of government corporations. As the result of this process, GAO could sift their efforts to the program evaluation that is now called performance audits. Less