May Stakeholders Have a Preferred Audit Type? An Experimental Protocol Within Local Authorities

• In Event: Breakfast and Roundtable
  In Roundtable: Roundtable 2

Abstract

Taking a utilitarian approach, this study analyses the issue of stakeholder preferences for external auditing. In the local public context, a 2015 French law provides for local authorities to experiment accounts certification practices without stipulating which type of audit should be applied. Our research starts by identifying the attributes of external auditing i.e. nature and quality of external auditing, external auditor’s responsibility, external auditor’s communication. We then identify three applicable types of audit, i.e. private sector’s statutory, Anglo-Saxon local public and European continental local public audits. A tool employing conjoint analysis is tested on 129 people and then deployed, obtaining 477 replies of which 154 from citizens. We identify a typical external audit adapted to the terrain studied, derived from new public management. This research informs us on the degree of importance that stakeholders attach to external audit attributes, revealing a predominance of auditor responsibility.

Author

• MARIE CAUSSIMONT, University of Toulouse I Capitole