By Jaimie Kaffash
10 September 2010
The local government secretary’s decision to transfer the Audit Commission’s value-for-money work to the National Audit Office was ‘taken in haste’ and not thought through, local government select committee chair Clive Betts has told Public Finance.
Eric Pickles told the Commons on September 7 that the NAO would be taking on local government value-for-money assessments. Responding to a question from former Public Accounts Committee chair Edward Leigh, Pickles said: ‘The House should celebrate the rigour that the National Audit Office has brought to the study of value for money, the work that it has done to offer good practice, and its accountability to the House.
‘What the coalition government has done will increase accountability to the House.’
Recent value-for-money studies conducted by the Audit Commission include assessments of local government pensions, young people not in employment, education or training, and collaborative procurement. There had been no indication from ministers about whether these studies would continue following the abolition of the Audit Commission.
But Betts said the move had ‘all the hallmarks of a decision taken in haste without being thought through’.
He added that Pickles had no right to make this decision. ‘It’s very interesting in that no-one has apparently agreed that with the National Audit Office,’ he told PF.
‘My understanding is, as Margaret Hodge, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, has made clear, that the NAO is not part of the Department for Communities and Local Government. The secretary of state has no right to tell it what it can and can’t do.
‘The NAO works to the PAC. It has not been involved in those discussions. Before the NAO can take over that role, the PAC has to have a discussion, with the NAO also involved. My concern is that they have abolished the Audit Commission and therefore take away its role in value-for-money work and have not actually got an agreed replacement.’
The NAO said discussions about its future role were ongoing and any changes would be decided by Parliament.
The DCLG would not comment on the announcement.
