Developing performance audit in Spanish local government: an empirical study of a way forward

Like many developed countries, public services in Spain are facing a prolonged period of financial austerity. Consequently, most parts of the Spanish public sector have to give consideration to various aspects of public services, including the means for improving existing performance. Performance audit is seen as a key means for improving performance in Spanish local government but the approach is not as well developed as in many other countries. This paper is an empirically based study of the current situation regarding performance audit in the Spanish local government sector and provides pointers as to how this approach might be strengthened