Does an expectations gap exist in the municipal audit?

Abstract

As the title indicates, our purpose is to investigate whether an expectations gap exists in the municipal audit. The problem involves the relations partly between the elected representative auditors and the municipal council, partly between the elected representative auditors and the committees. We have combined the research made on the expectations gap in the private sector with information about how the municipalities are managed. We have performed a qualitative study consisting of interviews with representatives from the municipal council, the committees and the elected representative auditors in three Swedish municipalities. Our conclusions are based on the interviewees’ personal opinions and should therefore not be seen as a general overview of all Swedish municipalities. However, we believe we have discovered certain important tendencies. We point to five fundamental aspects that shall be seen as indicators of areas where expectations problems may occur. These aspects are the auditors’ tasks, the fulfilment of the commission, the information about the auditors’ role, the continuous communication and the auditors’ competence. After analyzing these aspects on the basis of the empiric material, we come to the conclusion that the expectations gap is modest between the respondents, who are all chairmen or vice chairmen. However, there is a significant expectations gap between the auditors and the members of the councils and the committees.