The new full-time Auditor General for Wales, Jeremy Colman takes up office today. The Auditor General will audit the accounts of the National Assembly for Wales and its sponsored public bodies, NHS Wales, including NHS Trusts and Local Health Boards, and will appoint auditors of local government organisations including national parks, police authorities, and fire and rescue services. As part of his work, the Auditor General will also carry out studies to examine how well the public purse is being used to deliver quality services at a good price and to help services to improve. Work in local government will include a major role in delivering the Wales Programme for Improvement and the inspection of local government services with regard to “best value”.

Jeremy Colman said: “Independent external scrutiny plays a key role both in holding public services to account and in promoting improvements. The new WAO will be able to look across all public services in Wales in the effort to improve services and the lives of people in Wales. Working with the Welsh Assembly Government, the Assembly’s Audit Committee, local government and a host of other stakeholders, the WAO will be a world-class audit office.
That is a realistic aim thanks to the impressive work of the Audit Commission in Wales under Clive Grace and of my predecessor as Auditor General, Sir John Bourn, supported by the National Audit Office Wales.”

“The WAO does not confuse independence with isolation. We will be an impartial provider of unbiased information and advice on public service performance, and we will work supportively with the bodies we audit and inspect. We will forge strong links with all our stakeholders including other audit and inspection bodies in Wales, sharing information and working together to help achieve better public services in Wales without imposing unnecessary burdens on the front line.”

Notes to Editors

• The Wales Audit Office is responsible for the annual audit of some £19 billion pounds of taxpayers’ money across the whole of the public sector in Wales.  It also carries out value for money studies. 
• The WAO was created on 1st April 2005 following the passing of the Public Audit (Wales) Act 2004, which expanded the functions of the Auditor General and enabled the transfer of the staffs of the Audit Commission in Wales and National Audit Office in Wales to his employment.
• The WAO has its headquarters in Cardiff and employs around 230 staff, of whom 107 are based elsewhere in Wales.