Dispersing the Audit Commission's work to private firms marks the end of District Audit as we know it. But watch this space for further reforms
The Audit Commission’s announcement yesterday that it had, in effect, dispersed all its audit work to a small number of companies spells the end of the District Audit (DA) service that has been a part of the local government scene for well over a century and a half. It is a curiously downbeat end for an enterprise that in many ways led the world in improving the oversight and probity of public money.
Ever since Communities Secretary Eric Pickles announced the demise of the Commission in August 2010 a question-mark has hung over the future of the DA service. Efforts to turn it into a mutual have, in the end, failed. In the context of the government’s big society policy, ministers must surely regret that there is not to be a new-style management buy-out DA arrangement.
In announcing the future of audit yesterday, the Audit Commission also demonstrated that its purchasing power was such as to be able to deliver big cuts in fees. It will be fascinating to see whether there is an upwards-drift in fees as and when the Commission finally disappears.
The demise of the DA service will be seen as sad by many people who admired its history and traditional public service ethos. Nothing is for forever, though in accepting progress it is important to differentiate between the good and the not-so-good.
One thing is now certain: at some point in the near future a government will decide to review the wider future of public sector audit in England. The post-Audit Commission and post-District Audit arrangements will doubtless prove too haphazard for future ministers and officials. This is England: expect more reform.
