Legislative oversight, performance auditing, and policy accountability: A case study of six audits of the Arizona Department of Corrections

Legislative oversight in the form of performance auditing or evaluation has grown tremendously over the past twenty years. The structure and development of this form of legislative oversight has developed within the framework of financial auditing standards and the social science methods of evaluation research. Much literature exists on the practice or lack of practice of oversight and on the utilization or lack of utilization of evaluation research by decision makers. From the analysis of these two distinct fields, a framework was created by which to investigate the utilization of performance auditing.; A case study with multiple units of analyses was used to gather in-depth assessment of performance auditing utilization. The Arizona Department of Corrections was selected as the case study. The several units of analyses consisted of the findings and recommendations in eight performance audit reports and responses from ten individuals involved with these audits.; The results of this study determined that many of the factors identified in the framework created from the legislative oversight and evaluation research literature are also factors that hinder or promote utilization of performance auditing. It was proposed that the structural placement of performance auditing as a legislative agency would be an overriding condition that influences how performance auditing is utilized in Arizona.; The findings of this study indicate that how and what is anticipated as utilization is dependent upon who is defined as the user. The agencies being audited are expected to show instrumental use. That is, the agency is to respond to the findings and to implement the recommendations somewhat directly and immediately. In contrast, the audience for whom the performance audit is conducted, the Legislature, displays a different type of utilization--conceptual use--when assessing the Legislature's response to audit findings and recommendations. However, in a broader context of the Legislature's utilization, it was found that the Arizona Legislature displays instrumental use of performance auditing as part of its legislative oversight function.