The vulgarity, stupidity and vague whiff of inappropriateness surrounding ConDem cuts rows by the day. Yesterday the Audit Commission was scrapped in an announcement made by Communities and Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles.
The Commission was an independent watchdog charged with auditing and supporting local councils to ensure that they deliver effective, value for money services. The audit functions of the Commission will be moved to the private sector. Its research activities will simply cease.
So, rich pickings for the Big 4 firms who spent so much supporting the Tory because before the general election there then. How good of Dave to send such a nice “thank you”.
And how inappropriate to now task auditors paid well over £500,000 each on average with responsibility for checking local value for money. As if they’d know anything about it.
But it gets worse. In a statement, Eric Pickles said,
“I want to see the commission’s auditing function become independent of Government, competing for future audit business from the public and private sector. These proposed changes go hand in hand with plans to create an army of armchair auditors — local people able to hold local bodies to account for the way their tax pounds are spent and what that money is delivering.”
Is the man stupid?
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I’m an auditor and would love to hold my local authority’s spending to account. Perhaps Eric Pickles could ring up Camden and let them know I’m coming. I’ll need a desk,access to last years financials and supporting documents, somewhere to plug my laptop in etc. Next week ok?
As you say Richard – this is just an excuse to let the big consulting firms fleece the local ratepayer, and part of the Tory vendetta against professionals in the public sector. What a joke.
The Audit Commission was always vulnerable as a creature of the Minister responsible for local government. It was created in an ad hoc way prior to the overall reform of the UK Exchequer and Audit Department which resulted in the National Audit Office (NAO) – a senior organisation independent of the Government and reporting to the House of Commons. So it would be in any event healthier if the NAO took over the functions of the Audit Commission. The House of Commons Commission could even cover the costs without Treasury permission. But the main ongoing battle is to preserv the independence of the NAO and to protect it from any Treasury take-over …….. which is always on the cards!
A quick search of the Electoral Commission website shows that in the period from Q2 2005 to date, non-cash donations to the Conservative Party consisting of staff secondments and consultancy services includes:
Deloitte – £323,501.75
E&Y – £63,989.08
Grant Thornton – £15,000
KPMG – £435,973.00
PwC – £533,063.68
Money, influence and politics. Nothing more need be said.
Maybe not all of activities of the Audit Commission will be missed. Have a look at John Seddon’s commments on the Commission’s target and inspection culture:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/07/steve-bundred-public-service
and
http://www.systemsthinking.co.uk/
[…] noted the demise of the Audit Commission on Friday, and said: The audit functions of the Commission will be moved to the private sector. Its research […]
I understand the point Alex S is making. And indeed he may “take heart” since Mr Pickles may think councils hiring their own auditors is more simple and cost effective than relying on either the Commission or the NAO. Of course there is then some danger of breaching long standing principles of public audit and it is well known that “cosy” relationships can develop between private sector auditors and their clients. I do not for one moment imagine Alex S would succumb to such temptations but after all that’s what famously happened in the Enron disaster — which in turn led to a global collapse of confidence in corporate reporting. Then, too, the very highest levels of our public service are still not exactly immune to the blandishments of such professional expertise. So, all in all, we depart from the principle of an independent public audit at our peril.
@Des McConaghy
Well said