NCJ Number
72290
Journal
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTANTS JOURNAL Volume: 29 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer 1980) Pages: 37-46
Date Published
1980
Length
10 pages
Annotation
Comparison of corporate and Federal audit costs indicates that the Federal audit resources are managed as well as the private sector's, even though the Federal audit cost to agency funding percentage is higher than that for the private sector.
Abstract
Audit costs in 39 Federal audit organizations, in addition to the General Accounting Office (GAO) were compared with a sample of 105 companies because of the controversy over the adequacy of funding and the management of audit resources in the Federal sector. The results showed that organizations in the Federal sector were spending a higher percentage of total funding on audit costs than were comparable private sector organizations. However, this could be caused by the orientation toward the fiduciary responsibilities inherent in the Government, and the need for accounting records which had to be kept using separate funds and requiring additional auditing. This would indicate that the Federal audit funds were managed as well as the private sector's. This assumption could also be supported by the fact that the Government costs, including audit costs, did not simply increase during the years studied, but reflected changes in demand for Government services. Statistical and tabular data (10 tables) and reference notes are included.