Final answer:
Both social and financial audits assess an organization's status and areas for improvement, with a financial audit focusing on fiscal responsibility and a social audit on social impact. Government entities, like the GAO and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, conduct these audits in the public sector.
Step-by-step explanation:
A social audit resembles a financial audit in several ways. Both aim to assess the organization's current status and identify areas that need improvement. A financial audit involves an official inspection of an organization's accounts by an independent body. This comprises the examination or inspection of various books of accounts by an auditor, and may include physical checking of inventory to ensure all departments comply with the established recording transactions process.
Similarly, a social audit also measures and reports on the social performance of a company. It examines how well a company is meeting its social and ethical goals and responsibilities. The goal is to provide transparency and hold organizations accountable to the public and other stakeholders. In essence, both types of audits work to give a comprehensive understanding of an organization's activities but focus on different aspects: financial audits on fiscal responsibility and social audits on social impact.
Government entities such as the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency perform similar audit functions within the public sector, overseeing budgetary issues and the balance sheets of financial institutions respectively.