TO BE OR NOT TO BE INDEPENDENT? AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON THE INDEPENDENCE OF SUPREME AUDIT INSTITUTIONS AND THE LEVEL OF COUNTRIES’ FISCAL TRANSPARENCY

Abstract

The aim of this study was to identify the existence of a relationship between the level of independence of a Supreme Audit Institution and the level of fiscal transparency of a country. The independence of an audit institution is seen as an essential factor that can affect the performance of activities of this entity, since it is related to the credibility that is assigned to this institution. Considering the objective of this research, there was performed an analysis hierarchical cluster using the clustering algorithm for greater distance and similarity measure of square Euclidean distance. The sample used was composed of data from 85 countries, including Brazil. The initial solution resulted in eleven clusters. After reclassification, those were reorganized into six new groups. The analysis led to the finding that a level of independence of a national audit is associated with a regular or good level of fiscal transparency of a country. The contrary assertion was also observed, i.e., low levels of independence of a Supreme Audit Institution are associated with low levels of fiscal transparency of the country. Another finding is that, besides the level of fiscal transparency, other variables affect the level of independence. The main limitation of this study was the use of variables related to the independence of a Supreme Audit Institution, given that there were evidences that other variables can impact the adoption of practices related to fiscal transparency.