OGC head calls for CPA for Whitehall

15 Sep 05
Whitehall should be subject to a performance inspection regime similar to the one already in place for local government, the head of the Office of Government Commerce said this week.

16 September 2005

Whitehall should be subject to a performance inspection regime similar to the one already in place for local government, the head of the Office of Government Commerce said this week.

John Oughton, who is overseeing the pan-public sector efficiency initiative, said council chief executives had repeatedly told him that the Comprehensive Performance Assessment had been the single biggest driver of improvement in the sector.

'How about something like CPA in central government?' he said on September 13, adding that the regime had delivered 'powerful positive effects', securing a continuous cycle of improvement in town halls.

He said that, 12 months on, progress on the efficiency programme was 'encouraging' but the new challenge was to stop seeing Gershon as a one-off exercise and embed it in the long term. 'The choice not to be good shouldn't be an acceptable proposition,' he said.

Oughton was addressing a policy seminar on efficiency organised by CIPFA and the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales to mark the run-up to the institutes' integration vote this month.

The seminar also heard from Tony Travers, director of the Greater London Group at the London School of Economics, who agreed that public sector bodies had made a good start on the efficiency drive but warned that the real challenge would come in measuring what had been achieved. He compared the process of analysing efficiency gains to grabbing 'handfuls of mist' and suggested that a merged accountancy body could have an important part to play.

'The only real answer to what impact Gershon has had would be provided by a significant independent study, possibly by the National Audit Office or Audit Commission, possibly by a new, larger accountancy body,' Travers said. 'It is incumbent on us to find out in the end what Gershon really did.'

CIPFA chief executive Steve Freer said that, given the scale of the Gershon challenge, finance managers needed to do all they could to share knowledge and expertise. 'If we are to rise to the challenge, sharing knowledge, ideas and best practice has to be an absolute prerequisite.'

ICAEW chief executive Eric Anstee added: 'We are stronger if we stand collectively on the issues and challenges facing the modern profession.'

Ballot papers will be sent out next week with the result of the integration vote announced at Special General Meetings on October 25.

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