The Use of Social Science in the Changing Role of the GAO

The profession of the government auditor has been, is, and will continue to be making adjustments in its traditional patterns of work. Society and its needs are changing, government is changing, and professional work in government-in this case auditing-also is changing. This article shows that the U.S. General Accounting Office is learning by experience how to audit government programs having economic and social purposes in order to find out how useful they really are. It reveals the interesting diversity of a GAO auditor's assignments, tells how GAO work is planned, discusses finer points of new auditor disciplines, traces the development of the GAO organization from the days of green eye-shades to auditing by computer, and ends with a glimpse of new directions GAO services to the Congress may be expected to take.