What are the basic methods of government audit?

Technical methods of performance audit

Information collection technology

Information collection is the collection of audit evidence. Performance audit follows some traditional financial audit methods, such as examination, verification, confirmation, observation, inventory and sampling, but it also has its own unique methods.

1. Field observation. Observe the work layout of the whole audited unit, understand the whole process of operation and management, see the exertion of its work functions, and get the overall impression of the organization; Observe the status of inventory and equipment on the spot, and pay attention to find out whether there is excessive backlog, scrapping and other waste phenomena; Understand the operation process of the project through on-the-spot observation of the project and the work site.

2. Interview. Ask questions to relevant personnel and get answers, at the same time make oral inquiries and take notes. The interviewee can be the senior director, general manager or party of the audited entity, or an outsider including experts in a certain field.

3. Symposium. It can also be understood as multiple interviews. Before the symposium, the relevant questionnaires can be submitted to the audited units in advance, so that they have time to make proper preparations and select relevant personnel to participate in the symposium.

4. Questionnaire. When there are too many people or units involved to make necessary inquiries, a questionnaire survey can be used. The key link is to design a set of scientific and reasonable forms, requiring all the contents to be answered. These questions should be very clear, not ambiguous or induced. This method is more suitable for capital expenditures that benefit a wide range, especially for a certain type of public individuals, such as poverty alleviation funds and Three Gorges resettlement funds.

5. Review methods. Consult and read the documents and materials related to the audited entity or project, including the audit reports of previous years, and find out useful information from them.

(b) Information analysis and assessment techniques

1. Comparison is to compare the actual situation with a reference or benchmark, which can be scheme, budget, standard, design, history, same industry, etc.

2. Factor analysis. Analyze the facts and find out the difficulties. For example, the office expenses of a certain unit are obviously overspent, is it because of the increase in personnel or workload? Is it because of waste or unreasonable budget?

3. Statistical sampling. Statistical sampling method is suitable for large audit projects, and also needs the assistance of computer application software. Statistical sampling methods include systematic sampling, stratified sampling, monetary unit sampling and random sampling. Random sampling is sometimes mistaken for random sampling, but the latter is not a statistical sampling method. In the traditional practice of financial auditing, random sampling is often used, either a large number of subjective choices or arbitrary choices are made. However, random sampling has strict rules, and a random number table can be used, but it is best to generate random numbers with the help of a computer.

4. Cost-benefit analysis. This is a decision-making technology, and its principle is to choose the best investment scheme through analysis and comparison according to the relationship between output, cost and profit. This method is suitable for profit-oriented enterprises to analyze and evaluate their actual investment decisions.

5. Net present value method. This is also a decision-making technique. Different from the former, it incorporates the concept of time value of money. Its basic principle is to convert all income and expenditure in different periods into monetary value at the same time, and draw a conclusion by comparing the two.