| Abstract: | General Accounting Office (GAO) audit reports have an impact on government operations by encouraging growth in the size and scope of the state and by encouraging the Congress and executive agencies to attend to the auditor's dominant values of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in government. Through its financial, management, and program audits, the GAO program evaluators seek to rationalize agency management and programs so that more resources are required. The GAO's program evaluation efforts also serve Congress by providing for oversight of public policy, a bludgeon to coax agencies into pursuing activities preferred by congressmen, and a tool for electoral activities. In the end, the evaluation auditors are doomed to frustration in achieving their ideals for effective democratic government. This is so because “practical business policy” is irrelevant to government operations and inconsistent with the core values of a democratic state. |
