Search begins for NAO chairman
23 Oct 2008, David Jetuah, AccountancyAge
http://www.accountancyage.com/aa/news/1764671/search-begins-nao-chairman
The National Audit Office has started its search for a chairman after one its most turbulent periods.
The new position, worth some £50,000 a year for one day a week’s work, is expected to be at the centre of efforts to ensure best practice after a root and branch reform of the NAO’s corporate governance was called for by the Public Accounts Commission.
The review followed an expenses scandal in 2007, which led to former comptroller and auditor general Sir John Bourn stepping down after 25 years.
Edward Leigh MP, chairman of the Public Accounts Committee; Nicholas Macpherson, permanent secretary of HM Treasury; and Tim Burr, the present comptroller and auditor general, form the selection panel for the chairman, who will then assist in appointing a C&AG.
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Visitor comments
First things first!
The real issue here may be to extend Treasury control before the House of Commons gains any meaningful leverage over the present absurd parliamentary supply procedure. It is already unfortunate that the Commons Liaison Committee has promised that Parliament will never reject budgets (as opposed to practice in most other democracies). But then long before the Treasury comes forward with its promised ideas for a more rational supply procedures the Commons Accounts Commission has suddenly volunteered ad hoc legislation to place the NAO within a company structure where the C&AG will report to a Chairman. One might suspect the hidden hand of the Treasury in all this. What is more it will do nothing to resolve the C&AG's absurd role as Comptroller - and at a time when "Keynesian" management brings more focus on assumptions and on forecasting beyond the scope of public audit.
Obviously the correct order of things is for the Treasury and the Commons to first agree on some rational supply procedure by which parliament considers grants the money to the Government to run the country. That is what the Treasury is currently meant to be preparing. And therefore it seems suspiciously premature to suddenly promote ad hoc constitutional legislation to change the way the National Audit Office is constituted.
First things first. Parliamentary supply is in a chaotic mess and remains at the important front end of the whole business. This is the obvious priority and clearly an overall scheme for supply and audit should be dealt with together.
Posted by: Des McConaghy , 18 Dec 2008 | 00:00