Reinventing Auditing: Auditing at a Distance at the European Court of Auditors

Seminar summary

Changes in regulations, shifts in societal expectations, and other contextual factors influence the nature and scope of audits. Power (1999) argues that adaptability is essential for audits to remain relevant and effective in addressing emerging challenges – and others argue that changes in auditing technologies are linked to institutional (e.g., regulatory, cultural and normative) transformations within the organisational field of audit (Khalifa et al., 2007; Robson et al, 2007). The Covid-19 pandemic led to substantial changes in auditing in the public sector. Previous studies argue that the restriction in maintaining physical contacts make it barely possible for auditors to conduct the fieldwork by visiting the sites and gathering the necessary evidence (Barac et al., 2021; Ritonga and Suyanto, 2022), and Covid-19 became an external unexpected event that fuelled the ongoing digitalisation of public sector audit (Rana et al., 2022). Against this background, we locate our own interest in the public sector auditing processes and practices, exploring ways in which reinventing auditing can be seen as one way of ‘auditing at a distance’. To do so, we follow Ron Boschma (2005) “proximity” framework, acknowledging that distance can be cognitive, organizational, social, institutional and geographical. Importantly, the lack of geographical proximity creates the opportunity for other types of proximity to arise. Based on this framework, we seek to analyse new auditing practices and processes that emerged due to covid-19 pandemic at ECA. The paper studies how the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic affected the European Court of Auditors (the institution which assesses effectiveness, efficiency, legality and regularity on the EU level) by focusing on two levels: ECA as an organisation and the EU auditors (individuals). Through interviews and extensive data analysis we explore how ‘auditing at a distance’ unfolded under Covid-19 which particular focus on changing financial, compliance and performance audit practices. The results showed that ECA role and activities in terms of financial and compliance auditing has increased making ECA also responsible to examine the Commission’s control system for the RFF to assess how it contributes to ensuring that the milestones and targets are satisfactory fulfilled and that the Union’s financial interests are protected. We highlight how ECA relied on different forms of proximity to maintain auditing at a distance and has entered a post-covid balancing stage, after introducing such changes.

How to attend this seminar

This seminar is free to attend with no need to register in advance.

We welcome you to join us online on Wednesday 28 February 2024 at 2pm.

Speaker bios

Giuseppe Grossi

Giuseppe Grossi is Professor of Business Administration (with a focus on Public Management and Accounting) at the Department of Business administration at Kristianstad University (Sweden), research professor in Accounting at Nord University (Norway) and visiting professor at Kozminski University (Poland). His research focuses on smart cities, hybrid organizations, government accounting and auditing, with several articles published in international peer-review journals of accounting, public management/administration and organization studies. Giuseppe Grossi is ad hoc referee for several international scientific journals and have been a member of the scientific and organizing committee of several international conferences and workshops. He is member of the editorial board of several international journals: Accounting Auditing and Accountability Journal; International Journal of Auditing; International Journal of Public Sector Management; Management Business Administration Central Europe; International Review of Public Administration; Journal of Accounting in Emerging Economies; Journal of Accounting and Organizational Change; Journal of Accounting & Organization; Journal of Management & Governance; Pacific Accounting Review; Scandinavian Journal of Public Administration; Tekhne. Review of management studies review, Journal of Finance and Management in Public Services. Giuseppe is editor in chief of the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting and Financial Management since 2018, and associate editor of Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management since 2021.Since June 2023 Giuseppe is Chair of Comparative International Governmental Accounting Research (CIGAR) network.

Veronika Vakulenko

Veronika Vakulenko (PhD) is Associate Professor at Nord University Business School, Bodø, Norway. Her research directions cover but not limited to public sector management, in particular public sector accounting, budgeting, finance, and auditing; performance management and measurement; reforms and organizational changes. In her research, Veronika applies behavioural and institutional theoretical approaches, and conducts interdisciplinary studies. Preferred research context is developing countries, emerging economies, or those in transition, and specifically – Ukraine. Veronika is the Associate Editor of the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting & Financial Management, and is an active member of several international research networks (CIGAR network, EURAM, EGPA).