Public Sector - District Audit success
District Audit has beaten off stiff competition from accountancy firms to win health service contracts put out to tender by the Audit Commission.
This year’s market-testing round involved seven National Health Service trusts in north-west England. Three providers competed for the seven audits.
District Audit was awarded Aintree hospital, Royal Liverpool & Broadgreen university, Royal Liverpool Children’s, St Helens and Knowsley hospitals and Wirral hospital.
KPMG also retained its two existing audit contracts for the Cardiothoracic Centre Liverpool and the Liverpool Women’s hospital.
The Audit Commission said the identities of the unsuccessful bidders were confidential. One NHS trust finance director said, however, that PricewaterhouseCoopers had competed for audits but failed to win any.
Testing involved submission of written proposals and interviews by a panel of representatives from the commission and each of the trusts involved.
District Audit Northern Region director David Goodman said: ‘We at District Audit are extremely pleased with the results of this year’s market testing.
They demonstrate the confidence that the Audit Commission and the public sector has in the quality of District Audit’s work, and in the ability of our staff.’
Commission controller Andrew Foster said: ‘Market testing is one of the ways of ensuring that the commission’s auditors provide value for money in auditing public services. These results show the success of our market-testing regime through the re-appointment of the existing audit suppliers.’