The Auditing Function in the Federal Government.

Abstract This article focuses on auditing in the U.S. Federal Government. The audit of governmental and charitable enterprises differs only from the audit of a commercial organization as the individual requirements may dictate. There is the same necessity in government and institutional auditing for the authentication of financial statements and validation of whatever fiscal procedure may have been employed. It is equal, necessary that financial trusts be discharged in government and institutions. The primary difference between business and government may be stated, in simplest accounting terms, to the effect that business seeks to render a service based upon the profit motive, while in government the profit motive is absent. The government of the United States is the greatest single enterprise ever assembled by mankind, and yet it is not so unique as to require a different statement of the rule. Indeed, the very magnitude and heterogeneity of its operations are such as to call even more imperatively for a clear understanding and application of basic principles.