Service delivery: The audit dimension

Reporting of performance information on public sector services has increase d substantially in recent years. The audit of such information however is s till relatively uncommon. In 1989 the Audit Office in New Zealand was confr onted with a legislative requirement to audit Statements of Service Perform ance (SSPs), This paper backgrounds New Zealand's shift in emphasis from pr ogram effectiveness audits to the audit of non-financial performance inform ation, describes the development of audit methodology in this area and iden tifies lessons learned.