Crossover of Audit and Evaluation Practices: Challenges and Opportunities(Comparative Policy Evaluation)

Crossover of Audit and Evaluation Practices brings together academic analysis with insights from practitioners to discuss the potential for collaboration in audit and evaluation practices between three professional disciplines. Clearly written and thoughtfully organized, this volume is structured in three parts to deal with theory, practice issues and how the practices have worked together. • Part One provides definitions of performance audit, internal audit and program evaluation. • Part Two addresses several challenges that professionals face in applying these standards and principles. • Part Three contains examples of organizational collaboration between the practices, how they have worked together and the lessons that were learned from that experience. Specific cases from the Government Accountability Office, and UNESCO, UNDP and Inter-Americas Development Bank illustrate what has worked or not and suggest reasons why. Crossover of Audit and Evaluation Practices offers even the most skilled and experienced professional insight on how to bridge some of the divides. It will help generate a better understanding of the activities and services that are either imposed on them or are freely available and help to stimulate their optimal use.

Table of Contents:
1. Introduction Part 1: The Basics 2. Performance Audit Defined 3. Internal Audit Defined 4. Defining Evaluation 5. The Practices of Audit and Evaluation: Similarities and Differences Part 2: Addressing Challenges in Practise 6. Ethics in Audits and Evaluation: In Search of Virtuous Practices 7. Managing Reputational Risk 8. Framing Recommendations 9. Auditing in changing Times: The UK National Audit Office’s Response to a Turbulent Environment 10. Understanding the Practice of Embedded Evaluation: Opportunities and Challenges Part 3: Practices Working Together 11. Conducting Evaluation in an Audit Agency 12. Two Sides of the Same Coin: The UNESCO Example 13. Lesson Learned from the Assessment of UNDP’s Institutional Effectiveness Jointly Conducted by the Independent Evaluation Office and the Office of Audit and Investigation of UNDP 14. Reflections on Opportunities and Challenges in Evaluation in the Development Banks 15. Conclusion

About the Author :
Maria Barrados is currently Executive-in-Residence at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University. Her Canadian government career included working as a government program evaluator, as a performance auditor and audit executive at the Office of the Auditor General and as President of the Public Service Commission that included responsibility for internal audit and program evaluation. Jeremy Lonsdale is Director of Defence value for money audit at the UK's National Audit Office. He has held a number of senior posts at the NAO. Between 2014 and 2016 he was a Senior Research Leader at RAND Europe in Cambridge. His publications include 'Performance auditing: Contributing to accountability in Democratic Government' (2011) and 'Making Accountability Work: Dilemmas for Evaluation and for Audit' (2007).

Review :
"This is without question a useful book for auditors and evaluators. It continues, details and deepens the rapprochement of two fields whose eventual integration holds great promise for a more profound understanding of the factual lessons of public policy. But beyond usefulness to the craft, it is also an important book in today's political environment because such integration would strengthen the voice of knowledge at a moment when it is unceasingly challenged, and when the presentation of even the highest-quality information requires extraordinary reserves of credibility and courage." — Eleanor Chelimsky, Former U.S. Assistant Comptroller General (GAO) for Program Evaluation and Methodology "Crossover of Audit and Evaluation Practices: Challenges and Opportunities is an important book because oversight bodies need to consider and use both audit and evaluation because of the valuable insight each provides into organizational performance. The authors show that there is much to be said for eliminating duplication, and increasing effectiveness and efficiency of these exercises by leveraging the collective knowledge and tapping into different perspectives, rather than working separately without benefitting from these additional insights. Indeed, it may be time to take the disciplines out of their glorious isolation and encourage them to interact in the real world of public policymaking." — Jonathan D. Breul is a retired senior executive with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget, and later Partner and Executive Director of the IBM Center for The Business of Government, as well as an adjunct professor at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. "This is a very timely, up-to-date and comprehensive book discussing concepts, practices, relationships and case studies in the areas of performance audit, internal audit and evaluation. A wide range of chapters by an impressive collection of international authors from very different backgrounds and institutions, make it a must read by anyone considering the relative roles of audit and evaluation." — John Mayne, Advisor on Public Sector Performance In my experience there have been two things which have hindered the recent conduct of audit and evaluation as review functions. First, there has been confusion regarding the scope and roles that these similar but different functions play – leading to uncertainty regarding what constitutes appropriate evaluation, internal and performance audit. Second, given that these functions are each distinct - yet they should ideally complement and hopefully reinforce each other – people have typically had difficulty overcoming challenges to having auditors and evaluators work together. This book addresses these two problems directly and will provide the reader with clarifications and answers to many related questions. In addition, as someone who has been involved in both functions, I like the way that these international thought leaders point to what can be learned across functions. This book should be useful to practitioners, study commissioners and users alike. — Steve Montague, Fellow of the Canadian Evaluation Society "This is without question a useful book for auditors and evaluators. It continues, details and deepens the rapprochement of two fields whose eventual integration holds great promise for a more profound understanding of the factual lessons of public policy. But beyond usefulness to the craft, it is also an important book in today's political environment because such integration would strengthen the voice of knowledge at a moment when it is unceasingly challenged, and when the presentation of even the highest-quality information requires extraordinary reserves of credibility and courage." — Eleanor Chelimsky, Former U.S. Assistant Comptroller General (GAO) for Program Evaluation and Methodology