A Historical Evaluation of the Single Audit: Thirty Years from Initial Legislation to Uniform Guidance

The U.S. government, through federal granting agencies (grantors), awards grants to state/local governments and nonprofit organizations (grantees) to meet national objectives. Since its initial legislation in 1984, the single audit has been used as a mechanism for ensuring accountability with these federal grants. Despite the consistent goal of accountability, concerns with single audit quality (i.e., whether audits reach appropriate conclusions) persist. In this historical evaluation of the single audit, we examine the major legislative and administrative developments associated with the single audit including (1) Single Audit Act of 1984, (2) Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996, (3) National Single Audit Sampling Project in 2007, (4) Improper Payments Initiative in 2009, and (5) administrative consolidation of all single audit circulars with Uniform Guidance issued in 2013. Understanding these developments should be helpful to researchers and policymakers in directing studies designed to better understand and improve single audit quality.