The changing role of the national audit office in public accountability

Abstract

The purpose of the paper is to gain insight into the changing role of the National Audit Office (NAO) in public accountability with the backdrop of the legal amendments that instituted the Office. The paper seeks to analyse the strength of the Office’s legal mandate, evaluate the understandability of NAO reports as well as discuss the Office’s bearing on public policy. The discussion draws upon semi-structured interviews conducted with three NAO Officers and thirteen main users of NAO reports, consisting of Public Accounts Committee (PAC) Members, Opinion Makers and Public Officials. The analysis takes stock of relevant PAC transcripts and of visits made to PAC meetings.