Public Sector Auditing and Corruption: A Literature Review

Abstract

The notion that auditing could reduce corruption has received considerable attention in both business and academia. The purpose of the current study is to explore the latest trends and gaps in the literature that investigate the link between corruption and public sector auditing. It is based on reviews of the academic literature and draws general conclusions on the status of the latest findings. The previous literature on corruption focused on economic and political perspectives. Although evidence suggests that public sector auditing helps to combat corruption, there is still a huge gap in the knowledge of this area, especially concerning the functional role of public sector auditing in corruption detection and deterrence in developing countries. Moreover, there is a scarcity of literature that explains in depth how audit types conducted by the Supreme Audit Institution (SAI) may contribute to a reduction in corruption, and which types of audit are more effective. There is also minimal in-depth sharing on the challenges that public sector auditing faces in detecting and preventing corruption.