Part III Assessing resources 12.7. IN PRACTICE: DECIDING WHEN AND HOW TO AUDIT EXPENDITURE As noted above, whether and in how much detail you decide to evaluate resource expenditure will depend largely on whether concerns or red flags about spending came up in your analysis of policy efforts. For example, did service delivery providers complain about procurement dysfunctions in key informant interviews? Did policy evaluations note off-budget donor funds as a factor complicating the achievement of the policy’s objectives? If you have a lot of evidence that suggests dysfunctions in expenditure are the main cause for poor service delivery, you might decide to invest more energy in auditing expenditure through PETS, CSC or QSDS. As these approaches involve a fairly large degree of primary data collection, be sure to update your research plan accordingly (refer to Chapter 7 for more details). If spending was less of an issue in your analysis of policy efforts, or if you are still not sure how much of an issue it is, a first step for looking at resource expenditure could be to review some basic expenditurerelated indicators. Relevant indicators might include: the budget execution rate (the amount of allocated money actually spent) for relevant ministries; the percentage of funding that is off-budget; and the availability and accessibility of independent audits (see the Open Budget Index). If this analysis raises some red flags, it may be worth digging deeper into relevant audit reports or procurement documentation. As noted in Chapter 6, because of their ability to officially request (or subpoena) information, NHRIs might be better placed than other organizations to obtain this information or to advocate for its release to the public. Photo by Asian Development Bank, reproduced under a CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 license. Chapter 12: Auditing public spending | 127