Removing a troublesome role definition
One of the first prescriptional moves made by
the Office to promote its expertise and views
about performance measurement involved arguing
against the direct assessment model, which
had been initially suggested by government as
the role for the Office in the 1993 Budget Speech.
Under the direct assessment model, auditors measure
and report on the performance of the organizations
that they have audited (CCAF, 1996).
Office members were not comfortable with this
model, perceiving it as too distant from their traditional
role of providing credibility to financial
statements prepared by management. Office auditors
preferred an approach that other state auditors
increasingly were advocating, namely, the
indirect assessment model – in which auditors
provide credibility to measures developed by
management: