Evaluation, Inteval, and Two National Audit Offices (U.S. GAO & Netherlands Court of Audit): Ray Rist’s Contributions and Leadership in the Early Years of INTEVAL
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: Background: This paper describes Ray Rist’s intellectual, research-focused work in the early years of Inteval (largely between the mid-1980s till around mid-1990s). It sets out what the position and roles of the (then) USA General Accounting Office (GAO) and the Netherlands Court of Audit (NCA) were with respect to evaluation. Purpose: Differences and similarities between the GAO and NCA experience are described, with the GAO as a ‘first wave’ organization in the evaluation profession and the NCA as a ‘second wave’ organization, as it learned from the USA experiences. The labelling of first and second wave developments in evaluation was formulated by Derlien (1989). There is a particular focus on the role of leadership in shaping practice. Setting: During the period of the mid-1980’s till mid-1990’s’, Rist and the author of this article were both working at respectively GAO and NCA in the field of policy evaluation/program evaluation and methodology. The setting was such that they worked together on a number of occasions and products, amongst others dealing with how (performance) audits and evaluation developed; the introduction (in the NCA) of government-wide (comparative) evaluations of tools of government like subsidies, information campaigns and inspections (covering all ministries), how evaluation was related to the learning capability of governments and how Inteval as a group of evaluators, auditors and other social scientists developed. Intervention: Not applicable Research design: Not applicable Data collection and analysis: Not applicable Findings: A number of lessons are set out about the role of leadership in evaluation.
Author: Frans Leeuw
Institution: Maastricht University
Language: English
Field: Decision Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4410799819