ABACUS, Vol. 44, No. 1, 2008 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6281.2007.00247.x 22 © 2008 The Authors Journal compilation © 2008 Accounting Foundation, The University of Sydney Blackwell Publishing Asia Melbourne, Australia ABAC Abacus 0001-3072 © 2008 Accounting Foundation, Unviersity of Sydney XXX ORIGINAL ARTICLES MAKING MANAGEMENT AUDITABLE ABACUS MICHELA ARNABOLDI AND IRVINE LAPSLEY Making Management Auditable: The Implementation of Best Value in Local Government This article examines the implementation of Best Value—an audit tool of the U.K. government’s modernization policy—in local government, specifically in Scotland. This is a study of the impact of this key concept, primarily on the management of these public services. The aim of Best Value Audit is to enhance transparency and accountability of manage- ment actions in local government. The article draws on Power’s (1997) Audit Society thesis to inform this research. The Best Value approach has been heavily influenced by audit processes and oversight bodies both in its design and implementation. This article supports the Power thesis of the Audit Society: It reveals the manner in which audit practices are deployed by agencies of central government with the intent to shape the management of local government. Key words: Accounting and audit changes; Audit Society; Best Value Audit; Management of local government. This is a study of Best Value Audit (Labour Party, 1997; Scottish Office, 1997; DETR, 1998)—a radical innovation in the U.K. While this research does look at the views of auditors—the traditional auditing research approach—it differs from previous research in its primary focus on: auditees—management and their perceptions of audit; in the longitudinal approach taken in this investigation; and in the context of Scotland which has implications for the portability of New Public Management to other national settings. The article to assess the percep- tions of management in local government on how Best Value Audit has impacted upon them and to study whether management sees audit ideas as a critical refer- ence point in guiding its actions. This responds to auditing research identified as areas of neglect: the need to focus on auditees instead of the traditional approach of just concentrating on auditors and audit institutions (Power, 2003) and by investigating what ‘sound management’ in public audit means in practice (Pollitt, 2003). Michela Arnaboldi (michela.arnaboldi@polimi.it) is an Associate Professor in the Dipartimento di Ingegneria Gestionale, Politecnico di Milano, and Irvine Lapsley (I.Lapsley@ed.ac.uk.) is Director of the Institute of Public Sector Accounting Research (IPSAR) at the University of Edinburgh.