The Weight of the Evidence · Chapter 6

Part Two · the Union's Money

Economy, Efficiency, Effectiveness

Three words that appear in every audit mandate in Europe, what each one actually asks, where the Financial Regulation and the auditing standards disagree about the middle one, and how a finding is built on each.

Classic traps from this chapter

  1. Economy is not “the cheapest”. The criterion has four limbs: due time, appropriate quantity, appropriate quality, best price. A finding built only on price is incomplete.
  2. The two definitions of efficiency are not identical. The Financial Regulation runs the relationship through activities to the achievement of objectives. ISSAI 300 stops at outputs delivered. Read the stem to see which instrument is in play.
  3. Effectiveness needs stated objectives. Where objectives are absent or unmeasurable, that is itself a departure from Article 33(3) and is reportable.
  4. A performance audit does not normally end in an overall opinion. It ends in findings and conclusions supported by sufficient appropriate evidence.

Chapter 6 in full

The traps above are how this chapter ends. The chapter itself works the material through first — the reasoning, the sources with their article and paragraph numbers, check-yourself questions with the reasons under them, and flashcards for retrieval practice.

The Weight of the Evidence is the PassEPSO study book for the field-related test of EPSO/AD/428/26: 536 pages in 27 chapters, PDF and EPUB.

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