Auditing as the Dissolution of Corruption

This paper develops a new discourse of control. The new discourse rejects the view that control is achieved through inspections and information alone, and supports the view that effective control means self-control and effective communications, both being necessary conditions to enable organizations to perform well. In this discourse, corruption is taken to be, among other things, the outcome of fragmentation in communications. Therefore, a movement toward a recursive organization of the State is offered as a way to countering corruption. This discourse was developed during a project for Institutional Change and Strengthening implemented at the Contraloría General de la República (CGR), in Colombia from 1995 to 1998. As part of the discourse we offer a distinction among traditional auditing practices, second-order auditing, and integrated systemic auditing practices.