The ongoing transformation of supreme audit institutions (SAIs) external environment is changing the demands and expectations of its stakeholders. The changing environment triggered by technological advancements, increased demand for accountability, and transparency means a change in the way auditing is done. The literature provides evidence of an ongoing technological innovation within the private sector audit. Private sector auditing research has focused mainly on technology adoption and use failing to address the umbrella concept of digital transformation (DT), some even consider processes of DT such as technology adoption and use to be DT. The public sector auditing literature is still yet to commence DT-related research. This study seeks to fill in this gap and after presenting what DT entails, we applied an exploratory approach through semistructured interview responses, together with other documents from SAIs, to understand how SAIs currently perceive DT and what are their current reactions or actions to transform. The paper analyzes and discusses how SAIs perceive and define the DT phenomenon. The results show that most SAIs still do not master the concept of DT, as they often refer to technology adoption or automation of auditing processes to be DT, notwithstanding a great majority acknowledges the need for DT but lacks the right strategy and resources in place. We saw a few proactive SAIs who are futuristic on the contrary a majority are reacting to change when the need arises, especially during the audit process. The paper provides one of the first empirical investigations into the current DT of public audits. It also proposes a general framework suitable for analyzing the factors involved in the DT in SAIs.

中文翻译：

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数字化转型和公共部门审计：SAI 的观点

最高审计机构 (SAI) 外部环境的持续转变正在改变其利益相关者的需求和期望。技术进步引发的环境变化、对问责制需求的增加和透明度意味着审计方式的改变。文献提供了私营部门审计中正在进行的技术创新的证据。私营部门审计研究主要集中在技术采用和使用上，未能解决数字化转型 (DT) 的总括概念，有些人甚至将技术采用和使用等 DT 过程视为 DT。公共部门审计文献尚未开始与 DT 相关的研究。本研究旨在填补这一空白，并在介绍了 DT 的含义之后，我们通过半结构化的采访回复以及来自 SAI 的其他文件应用了一种探索性方法，以了解 SAI 目前如何看待 DT 以及他们当前的反应或转变行动是什么。本文分析并讨论了 SAI 如何感知和定义 DT 现象。结果表明，大多数 SAI 仍然不掌握 DT 的概念，因为他们经常将技术采用或审计流程的自动化称为 DT，尽管绝大多数人承认对 DT 的需求，但缺乏正确的策略和资源。我们看到一些前瞻性的 SAI，相反，大多数人在需要时对变化做出反应，尤其是在审计过程中。该论文提供了对当前公共审计 DT 的首批实证调查之一。