Regular efficiency audits of state agencies are a powerful tool for controlling state spending and improving public service performance.
Key points
– An efficiency audit is an independent evaluation of the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of state agencies, public programs, and related organizations. It assesses how well public organizations are achieving their official goals. The recommendations made by the efficiency audits often help improve performance and reduce wasteful spending, overlapping programs, and corruption.
– Texas ranks below average in terms of the quality of public services despite continued growth in public spending.
– Efficiency audits in Texas are conducted on an ad-hoc basis. Our policy recommendation is to require one at regular intervals for every state agency.