A report released today by the Public Management and Policy Association (PMPA) think-tank is calling on the audit profession to play a greater role in securing improved corporate governance and exercise more fiscal transparency and accountability.
The report – a groundbreaking joint initiative between senior auditors from the UK and USA– discusses the changing role of the public audit profession and features contributions from the auditors general of the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, as well as the Audit Commission chief executive.
In the report, David Walker, US comptroller general, describes how the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) hosts roadshows across the country to highlight the worsening fiscal problem. The ‘Fiscal Wake-up Tour’ has attracted considerable interest.
‘Our mission has been to speak the truth about America’s worsening financial condition and fiscal outlook, the need for timely action, and possible ways forward,’ Walker said. ‘On several occasions, members of Congress, governors and mayors have joined us. At every stop, we have made it a point to lay out the facts in a professional, non-partisan and non-ideological manner.
‘Not everyone in Washington DC likes what the wake-up tour has to say, but as comptroller general of the United States, I feel a responsibility to state the facts, convenient or not. After all, if the head of the federal government’s leading accountability agency is not willing to speak up, who will?’
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