Appointing auditors

The Auditor General for Wales is the auditor of the Welsh Government and its sponsored and related public bodies including the NHS in Wales. He also has responsibility to appoint auditors to act as watchdogs of local government. They formally audit the accounts of local authorities and their annual improvement plans. 

Public audit is far broader than that carried out in the private sector and places highly demanding duties and responsibilities on the auditors. In view of this, the Auditor General has appointed Anthony Barrett of the Wales Audit Office as the auditor of all of the main local government bodies. Anthony is supported by in-house auditors or auditors from PricewaterhouseCoopers, KPMG and Grant Thornton, all approved private accountancy firms.  

The WAO keeps the deployment of senior auditors under review and carefully monitors their performance through its annual programme of quality control reviews.