What Is The Government Audit? Describes Its Objectives and Types.

The distrust on the part of the citizens towards the Public Administration has been affected in the last years. The lack of control and supervision of money from public coffers, as well as public tenders, has led to serious cases of fraud and corruption.

And you can think, none of the types of audits that exist can be used for that purpose? Yes, the government audit, which focuses precisely on the supervision of the management of the public economy; that is managed in a transparent, efficient and responsible manner.

What is Government Audit?

The government audit is the means through which public management is verified and controlled. Their activity and economy are analyzed, which work around efficiency and transparency, always acting in accordance with the relevant legal provisions applicable to the specific case.

Characteristics of Government Audit

We live in a society that advocates for transparency and demands a responsible and reliable public activity. Therefore, this type of government audit is becoming increasingly necessary, requiring modern standards and adapted to the economic, social, cultural and political environment of the moment.

We detail the characteristics of the government audit :

• Performs evaluations, studies, reviews and investigations of public activity
• It is an objective audit, conducted and directed by an impartial auditor.
• Evaluates the operations that have been carried out (it is an ex-post analysis). Likewise, it compares with the standards of performance, quality, or with generally accepted provisions and principles.
• The government audit concludes with a verbal and another written report.

Objectives of the Government Audit

It is clear that this type of audit, the government audit, advocates the proper functioning of the public coffers, for a responsible activity by the Public Administration.

But looking a little further, what are the objectives of the government audit ?:

• Promote improvements and constructive reforms, based on critical and objective criteria.
• Determine and inform the regulations and authorized legal programs.
• Find out if human, material and economic resources are used efficiently.
• Communicate to the rest of the organisms and entities about everything that has been discovered and is meaningful for them.

The government audit serves, in the first place, to analyze how the resources assigned by a given Administration are being used. After that, guidelines for action will be determined, so that the Administration acts optimally and uses the resources in the best possible way.

Thus, the value will be given to its image in the face of citizens and other public administrations. It is about acting responsibly and caring about what really matters, about making a professional and excellent allocation of resources and improving the service to the taxpayer.

Types of Government Audit

Depending on the objective you have, we can differentiate two types of government audit:

       1 – Financial audit

Within this financial audit, we distinguish 2 subtypes:

Audit of financial statements: Its objective is to determine if the audited public financial statements have logic, and analyze whether the operations and results of the exercise are framed within accounting principles.

Audit of financial matters: This type of audit focuses mainly on the programs and activities designed and determine if they act within the legal requirements.

       2 – Management audit

This type of audit does not only focus on how the resources available to the Administration are allocated and distributed; it also analyzes the work and performance of the officials, if they act on the basis of good faith, working with the objective of meeting the goals and objectives proposed