We report on experimental studies of the photon energy dependence of the Auger yield and the spin polarization of Auger electrons and photoelectrons after photoionization of the 5p subshell of free Ba atoms with circularly polarized light for photon energies between 22 and 31 eV. Relations between the dynamics of the Auger-decay and the photoelectron emission are derived and their validity is probed from the experimental results. Our data are compared with numerical calculations, which were performed in the Hartree-Fock and in the random-phase approximation with exchange approach.