The project's objective is to produce information about the magnitude of variation in Norwegian  municipalities' expenditure on audit services.

These services can be divided into financial and administrative audit. Besides registrering data for these expenditures in a sample of Norwegian municipalities, the project aims to explain why these expenditures vary. Organization of services is key explanatory variable. In order to assess the effect of this attribute, statistical control of other attributes such as income level and population must be applied.