The Watchdog: New Zealand's Audit Office 1840 to 2008

Description

In a global economic climate troubled by the consequences of a dearth of fiscal accountability and transparency, the importance of independent auditing bodies, whether in the public or private sector, is not to be underestimated. Today New Zealand is perceived as one of the world’s least corrupt nations – ranking alongside Denmark and Finland – indicating a job well done by its national Audit Office in inspiring public confidence. Yet the government auditing function set up in 1840 was initially a ‘timid creature’. The authors trace the Office’s rise and decline towards ‘impotent irrelevance’ before it was saved by computers, which facilitated more targeted and searching methods of examination. This absorbing tale moves from the teething problems of difficult origins, in which ‘the fulminations of Auditors-General were increasingly dismissed as nit-picking and legislated around – or ignored’, to the brave new world of radical ‘value for money’ auditing in the 1970s. The public sector reforms of the 1980s saw questioning of the very need for an Audit Office – questions that the Office was by then well equipped to answer.

Author description

David Green is an historian and editor in the History Group, Ministry for Culture and Heritage, Wellington. John Singleton is Reader in Economic History at Victoria University.

Table of contents

Introduction; Beginnings (1840-66); The FitzGerald Years (1867-96); The Liberal Era (1896-1912); From Reform to Depression (1912-35); Auditing the War Effort and the Welfare Ste (1935-75); Value for Money? The Shailes Era (1975-83); Brian Tyler and the Public Sector Revolution (1983-92); Crisis, Recovery and the Public Audit Act (1992-2002); The Audit Office in the New Millennium.

Stock Information

General Fields

• ISBN : 9781877372735
• Publisher : Otago University Press
• Imprint : Otago University Press
• Publication date : August 2009
• Dimensions : 255mm X 190mm
• Produced in : New Zealand
• Product Type : books

Special Fields

• Illustrations : b/w photos
• Pages : 208
• Dewey classification : 657.450993
• Bind : paperback
• Author : David Green and John Singleton