Sense and complexity: Initiatives in responsive performance audits

Abstract

Many policy programmes yield disappointing results. Like policy evaluation, performance audit aims to help policy makers by uncovering barriers to success and suggesting improvements. Traditionally, performance audit relies heavily on policy objectives, norms, and criteria while focusing on the responsibility of a specific government entity (e.g. a ministry or an agency). More recently, however, performance auditors have recognized the need to be more open and responsive to the needs and preferences of target groups and stakeholders, and changes in context and knowledge – elements that have been central to responsive and realist evaluation for some years. This article describes new initiatives to bring more responsiveness into performance audits. Starting from the new international performance audit guidelines of INTOSAI, it discusses how this can work in practice by looking at recent initiatives of the Netherlands Court of Audit. The focus is on a new tool for performance audit, under the rather provocative label of ‘reality checks’: compact audits of the connection between policy programmes and stakeholders’ needs and preferences. By including more responsive research questions and methods and looking critically to existing monitoring and evaluation practices in policy programmes, performance audit has an important role to play in balancing the benefits and risks of policy objectives and performance indicators.