Organizational Development: A Manual for Managers and ... - FPDL

Examination of the
legislative documents
OVERVIEW
STAGE
Collecting of
information using the
questionnaires
Preparation for the
interviews, comparison
of data from the above
sources
Review of collected
information during the
interviews
INTERVIEW
STAGE
Diagram 1 Auditing procedure (first two phases)
During the overview stage the audit team shall make an inventory of legislative requirements,
which indicate duties, responsibilities and functions of the local governments (terms are often very
much mixed and uncertain). Among the main sources for preparation for such an inventory one
shall use Constitution, Local Government Act, Statues (where available) and other laws and
regulations setting specific duties and responsibilities for the local government. If comprehensive
and clearly structured description of legislative environment is not available from external sources
at the very beginning, thorough examination of legislation should be planned and implemented at
the overview phase of the management audit.
Legislative acts do not describe, as a rule, clearly enough what local governments shall do, just
indicate, instead, that the local government “has a right”, “has an exclusive competence”, “is
responsible for”, “shall execute” etc. The level of ambiguity should be considered creating the list,
and later, when the auditors examine how legislative requirements are implemented. Therefore the
auditors shall not only have a list of documents regulating the activities of local government, but
also have to compile a list of specific requirements listed in these documents and formulate them
as clearly as possible. Results of such examination may be presented in the table (see Form 1).
At the same time (at the overview stage of the audit), a questionnaire may be distributed to the
employees of the administration. The questionnaires for heads of the subdivisions and
questionnaires for employees of the subdivisions should be different (see Form 2 and Form 3).
After the analysis of the information from these sources the auditor may have a preliminary
understanding about the scope local government administration’s activities. This information
should be verified during the interviews with the personnel as described in the following section.
What do they do?
Questions for the auditor (in respect to each department/ subdivision within the
scope of the audit):
• Which services do they provide? To whom?
• What is the scope and amount of the services? How does it comply with legislation?
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