Inducing Compliance and Performance from the Centre through Performance Audits: The Ghanaian Local Government Experience

This paper investigates the introduction of the Functional Organizational Assessment Tool (FOAT), by the Government of Ghana for measuring the performance of local government agencies in Ghana. The objectives were to find out... [ view full abstract ]

This paper investigates the introduction of the Functional Organizational Assessment Tool (FOAT), by the Government of Ghana for measuring the performance of local government agencies in Ghana. The objectives were to find out whether evidence of compliance during the FOAT reflected actual performance and whether the FOAT leads to improvement in or negative externalities on performance. Utilizing in-depth semi-structured interviews with purposively selected local government actors, the paper establishes that although central government interventions or initiatives such as the FOAT may lead to compliance and improvements in aspects of performance, those improvements are short of economy, efficiency, and effectiveness gains espoused in the performance audit literature. It also confirmed perverse learning and other negative effects pointed out by critics of performance audit. Based on the findings argue that despite the supposedly inescapable claws of institutions as posited institutional theories, resource constraints, historical dictates and informal considerations can compel actors to set aside the rules of engagement to satisfy stakeholders without showing real performance improvements