By Jaimie Kaffash
13 October 2010
Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles today refuted claims that he was reconsidering his pledge to allow councils to choose their own auditors.
Last week, Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge told Public Finance that Pickles showed a ‘clear understanding’ of the problems involved in dismissing the Scarman principle – which states that public bodies should not hire and fire their own auditors.
But the secretary of state today told PF that preventing councils from choosing their auditors was a ‘ludicrous’ notion.
‘Would you like us to regulate that Boots the chemist cannot choose their own auditors? It is a ludicrous idea. I don’t know where the idea that the public sector is so corrupt that it is incapable of picking its own auditors [is coming from].
‘What we will ensure is that there is turnover of auditors. But it does seem ludicrous that we should take the choice away from councils and nationalise the selection of auditors.’