Redefining the Performance Auditing Space

The tools of integrity institutions, including performance auditing (PA), are attracting growing research interest. Amidst this interest, there is ongoing debate about the definition of PA. This article adopts a new definitional framework to characterise and investigate the PA space, which is the conceptual space in which PA takes place. The article then uses a case study from Australia to consider four integrity institutions that, after a process of convergence, now occupy that space. The article explores the implications that arise when integrity institutions cohabit the PA space. It concludes that the space is both crowded and contested, and that this has implications for society, government agencies and the integrity institutions themselves.