Month: March 2021

By Alan Alexander, Chair of the Audit Scotland Board

Public audit in Scotland supports a mixed-market approach to audit appointments, appointing as auditors employees of Audit Scotland and audit firms. This mixed audit delivery model brings together a wealth of specialist experience and supports a flexible and sustainable supply of cost-effective, high-quality audits.

Tendering every five years ensures best practice by enabling the rotation of auditors, so that a public body doesn’t have the same auditor for an extended period. The latest tender round was planned for last year, but the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission made the decision to extend the current audit appointments for a year, given the disruption, risks and complexity of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I am pleased to announce that we will proceed with the tendering process this year and we will be inviting audit firms to bid for work this autumn. This decision has been made possible, in part, because we have seen the completion of all of the 2019/20 financial audits this year; a real achievement in such difficult circumstances.

Continue reading Tendering for new audit appointments this year

by Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland

ABOUT a year ago public service delivery was turned on its head. 

Vast sums of money were being spent to cope with the pandemic, and there was a huge shift to digital. Overnight, Audit Scotland became a virtual organisation. 

That changed landscape and the sheer pace of events meant our reporting had to become more agile and responsive, while maintaining audit quality and looking after our colleagues’ wellbeing.

We want our work and reports to be used widely so that they inform and help public services improve. We were already producing shorter, sharper briefing papers before Covid-19. Subjects included drugs and alcohol services, the student loan system and ways to get the best outcomes from public spending. But they were infrequent. Pieces of work with wider scopes tended to take precedence. 

Continue reading Working to achieve better public services