Audit Commission ready for change
Author: Public Servant - Jan 5, 2010
Officials at the Audit Commission are already preparing for an alternative inspection system to the comprehensive area assessment (CAA) in case the Conservative Party wins power, Public Servant has learnt, writes Dean Carroll.
A Tory government would immediately abolish CAA as part of its pledge to decentralise power and create a "post-bureaucratic state".
Commission managing director Gareth Davies told Public Servant that the regulator was "planning for any eventuality from the next general election". He admitted that the Tories may dramatically change the way the commission evaluated public bodies, adding: "They may not agree that we need to inspect them in the way that we do now."
But Davies said he expected the One Place website – the CAA online tool – to remain part of Tory plans because it had received a warm response from Conservative shadow ministers, who were given a demo of the portal. It may also chime well with Tory proposals for "Google Government".
"Nobody who has seen the website has said 'this is a waste of time,'" said Davies. "The information is now accessible on one website rather than buried in PDFs in various places."
The new inspection regime has been criticised by the Local Government Association and members of the Society of Local Authority Chief Executives for allegedly redirecting the time of public servants away from frontline duties. Merging the work of six different inspectorates had also proved problematic. Independent consultants are now analysing CAA, and their findings will be published in March.
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