By Richard Johnstone | 29 May 2014
Scrutiny of local council decisions in Wales has improved to help authorities take spending decisions based on evidence but best practice is not yet applied across the country, the Auditor General for Wales has said.
Examining the scrutiny function across all 22 local councils, Huw Vaughan Thomas said there had been a significant investment of time and resources in the process, intended as a counterweight to council leaders and cabinets. This had helped improve spending decisions inaustere times.
However, he said councils should do more to demonstrate the impact of scrutiny in challenging the leadership of local authorities, and clarify the role scrutiny committees play in promoting improvement and challenging decisions. In some cases, while councils were actively working to improve scrutiny, the outcomes were not always clear, he said.
‘This study shows that while there are pockets of good scrutiny there is a lack of consistency. With public services facing great financial challenge, there has never been a more important time for councils to develop effective and robust scrutiny.
‘Decisions need to be consistent, transparent and rigorous, and greater recognition of the value of scrutiny is vital if councils are to see real benefits in securing value for money for the taxpayer.’
Among the WAO’s recommendations was a call for scrutiny to be better planned alongside other council improvement arrangements.
The quality and range of information that scrutiny committees receive should be improved, and the requirement of executive members and senior officers in contributing to scrutiny clarified.
