External auditors, policy transfer, accruals accounting and the United Nations

Purpose: This study asks whether external auditors enable the transfer of policies to the United Nations organizations that they audit and, if so, what types of policies are transferred. Design/methodology/approach: The empirical research is based on a content analysis of 512 external auditor recommendations from 28 pre- and post-accrual reports of 14 UN bodies. Findings: We find that external auditors do enable policy transfer and that such involvements may, at times, veer into non-neutral policy spaces. Research limitations/implications: We did not analyze all UN organizations with accruals-based accounting. We also did not engage in a longer longitudinal study. Practical implications: Our findings raise new questions about international organization accountability, the technocratic and policy-specific influences of external auditors, and open a debate about whether attempted policy transfers can be neutral. Originality/value: The world’s largest group of international organizations is affiliated with the UN. External auditors help ensure that member-state monies are appropriately utilized. Our study is the first to compare pre- and post-accrual external auditor recommendations for 14 UN bodies. It is also the first to notate and study the attempted policy transfers from external auditors to the audited UN bodies.