Former PwC partner appointed new National Audit Office chief

Amyas Morse, a former global managing partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, has
been appointed Comptroller and Auditor General at the National Audit Office.

Amyas Morse will succeed current C&AG Tim Burr at the public spending
watchdog, subject to approval by the House of Commons, at a date yet to be
announced.

He will become chief executive of the NAO once parliamentary time has been
found to pass the Government’s draft Constitutional Renewal Bill placing reforms
of NAO governance on a statutory basis.

The announcement of his appointment comes amid growing concern over delays to
the legislative timetable for reforming how the NAO is run. In 2007, Sir John
Bourn stepped down as C&AG after an expenses scandal.

Morse’s appointment follows a selection process chaired by Commons Public
Accounts Committee Chairman Edward Leigh, and including Treasury chief Sir
Nicholas Macpherson, representing Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Sir Andrew
Likierman, recently appointed NAO board chairman elect, and Burr.

Leigh said: “The position of Comptroller and Auditor General is hugely
important. Its independence is supported by the requirement for a nominee to be
agreed by both the Prime Minister and the Chairman of the Committee of Public
Accounts, who is always from the Opposition.’

‘I am confident that Amyas will lead the National Audit Office to new
achievements and I look forward to working with him.’

Morse, a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Scotland, led
the Coopers and Lybrand practice in north of the border before moving to London
to manage the London City Office, subsequently becoming executive partner of
Coopers and Lybrand UK.

When PWC was formed, he became global leader of assurance practice, in audit
and related services, and then global managing partner.

Morse became the Ministry of Defence’s commercial director in 2006.