13 June 2008
CIPFA's president elect talks to Mike Thatcher about her priorities, and the skills she has acquired as the National Audit Office's assistant auditor general
You wouldn't guess from her modest desk and open-plan office that Caroline Mawhood is in charge of 150 staff and the audit of £300bn of revenue and £8bn of expenditure. The National Audit Office's longest-standing assistant auditor general shares space with six of her colleagues and their PAs, plus the current auditor general, Tim Burr.
Mawhood is down-to-earth and friendly, and appears to be ego free. But she's no pushover and can, I am told, be steely when necessary. These are all characteristics that will hold her in good stead as she prepares to take up the CIPFA presidency at the institute's annual conference in Brighton.
Having spent 32 years at the NAO, Mawhood understands what it takes to be a successful auditor. She currently oversees audits of the Treasury and Revenue & Customs as well as the departments for transport and international development. On top of this, she has special responsibility for European affairs.
Oh, and she's chair of the Public Sector Committee of the Federation of European Accountants (Fee), trustee of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer charity and director of Wimbledon Park Golf Club.
It was ever thus for Mawhood, who seemed destined to reach the top of her career from the early days. On qualifying with CIPFA in 1980 she was given a prize by the NAO for her exam performance. She was seconded to the NAO's Canadian counterpart in 1992, returned a year later as the UK watchdog's first female director and in 1996 became its first female assistant auditor general.
So, did she have a career route in mind when she started out? 'I had aspirations of what I wanted to achieve,' she says. 'From my experience, it's a question of taking the opportunities when they come your way. And being prepared to do jobs that you might not at first sight think you would want to do.'
Mawhood cites as an example her first responsibilities as assistant auditor general when she ran the corporate services of the NAO, including finance and human resources.
'One of the accusations that you get as an auditor is “well, it's all right for you, you've never actually had to run anything”. I have found it enormously helpful to be able to point out that I ran the corporate services of the NAO, I was subject to external audit and value-for-money reports and appeared before the Public Accounts Committee.'
Mawhood's year in Canada also appears to have been formative. She was accompanied by her husband and their two sons, and describes it as a 'fantastic experience'.
Canada seems to have been impressed, too. 'Caroline is open, engaging and has lots of fun,' says Maria Barrados, who was her manager at the time and is now president of the Public Service Commission of Canada. 'But she is not going to agree with somebody just to be personable. She can be critical of someone without diminishing the individual, and that is an enormous talent for an auditor.'
Barrados says that Mawhood is 'not fazed by anything' – a strength that will have come in handy over the past year, when the NAO had a difficult time. It saw the departure of the previous auditor general, Sir John Bourn, following criticism of his expenses, plus the furore over the Revenue & Customs disks that were lost while on their way to the watchdog.
Current auditor general Tim Burr is clearly appreciative of Mawhood's talents during this period. 'Caroline is very good at running an organisation, at handling the crises that come up from time to time. She's very self-possessed and knows what to do,' he says.
Burr accepted his position on a short-term basis while new governance arrangements were put in place for the NAO. When the Constitutional Renewal Bill becomes law, a board with a non-executive chair will be created and there will be a new appointment process for the auditor general.
So could Mawhood be in the running to take over at some point?
'Why not?' says former assistant auditor general Peter Keemer. 'It would be a good thing for the audit world if that were to happen. But this is where the politics come into play.'
Keemer, who was Mawhood's manager in the mid-1980s, says she is a 'can-do' person who rises to the occasion. However, he points out that the auditor general has traditionally been appointed from the wider civil service – often from the Treasury. It would be a significant step for this to change. Mawhood is understandably not giving any signals as to whether she might be an applicant for the top job.
'I am very much looking forward to being CIPFA president and I am very much enjoying being assistant auditor general. In the next year, it is really important to make a significant contribution to CIPFA and that's what I am concentrating on,' she comments.
Her focus as president, she says, will be in four areas: international, the policy and technical agenda, liaison with other accountancy institutes and engaging with the CIPFA regions. With CIPFA's development strategy placing emphasis on international growth, she feels this is an area where she can make a difference.
'I do think that my Fee experience, my Canadian knowledge and being responsible in the NAO for value for money at the Department for International Development have given me a very good understanding of what is required in developing countries and in the EU,' she says. 'So I shall take a strong role in promoting and encouraging CIPFA's international strategy.'
Mawhood will be the first female CIPFA president who is also a mother. However, she does not see this as a fundamental breakthrough.
'It is a fact about me, but I don't think that it is a significant issue,' she says.
She is conscious that the role of the finance director, particularly in local government, is becoming a hot topic at the moment and recognises the importance of the new panel set up to investigate developments across the public services. It commissioned research that was previewed at Public Finance's recent round table (see pages 20–25) and will be discussed in Brighton next week.
'It is absolutely right that CIPFA constantly reviews the role of the director of finance. Certainly from a central government perspective, over the past few years the professionalisation of the director of finance has clearly progressed and nearly every single government department now has a qualified FD who has an important role to play on the board.'
It will be a busy year for CIPFA's next president. As well as her institute duties and her day job, she will continue with her exercise regime of swimming five times a week and playing golf and tennis. She'll also fit in some French lessons, aiming to practise her vocabulary as she swims her lengths.
I venture that this demonstrates a disciplined character who knows what she wants to achieve and then goes for it. Is that a reasonable summary of her character, I ask. 'Pretty good,' she replies.
Caroline Mawhood will become CIPFA president following the institute's annual general meeting on June 17. She will make the welcome speech to the CIPFA conference in Brighton on June 18
PFjun2008
