The Dilemma of the Supreme Audit Institutions : Autonomy or Relevance? A Case Study of the Government Accountability Office (GAO)

The "Institutions of Accountability" (IOA) are considered as important instruments for ensuring horizontal accountability and of these, the role played by the Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) is particularly important. These SAIs are set up based on the constitutional and legal framework of countries and they help the legislatures to enforce accountability, reduce fiduciary risk and measure the outcome of different programs. Even though the SAIs are supposed to be "autonomous" and free from all types of political pressure, while performing their roles and responsibilities, these institutions have to interact with different political actors. As a result of this interaction, the SAIs, through concentrating on measuring the performance of different government programs/agencies, have started playing an important role in the political/policy arena and this has made the SAIs more relevant in the political realm. Consequently, the SAIs are now facing a unique dilemma - whereas autonomy requires that the SAIs be completely independent from the political actors while performing its duties, relevance requires keeping close connection with these actors so that their recommendations are being implemented. In other words, if the institution concentrates too much on protecting its autonomy by maintaining its distance from the other political actors, it may fail in affecting the policies/programs as per its recommendations. On the other hand, if the institution focuses on being relevant in the policy arena by interacting with the political actor, it may find itself vulnerable to political demand or pressure and thereby, may lose its autonomy. This paper has attempted to capture the dynamics of the autonomy-relevance dilemma faced by the SAIs and explore the strategies adopted by these institutions in dealing with this. While doing that, it has made an effort to develop a theoretical framework as a way to begin unpacking the political relationships and roles played by SAIs throughout the world