Performance auditing by the Portuguese Court of Auditors

This paper aims at presenting the Portuguese Court of Auditor's work in what concerns performance audit. As for performance auditing in the Portuguese Court of Auditors, the paper describes the context in which it has been taking place, referring to the need of increasing accuracy, fairness and transparency in the accounts of the entities submitted to its jurisdiction and control and, furthermore, of assessing economy, effectiveness and efficiency in public expenditure and of analysing the new forms of public financial management, thus promoting an increasing accountability of public managers. It also describes how performance audits will contribute to accomplish the Court's strategic and operational goals for the period 2011–2013. The professional point of view about performance auditing of public services, given by an auditor–director at the Portuguese Court of Auditors, represents the main (practical) contribution of the paper.