By Richard Leonard
AT the heart of a properly functioning democracy must be accountability. And accountability demands transparency. Where openness is in short supply, it is the job of Parliament to force it into the light. No part of our parliamentary democracy has a more powerful role in this task than the Public Audit Committee.
The committee must be the people’s and the Parliament’s guardians, so that when things go wrong we get to the bottom of it, when public money is wasted we hold those responsible to account, and when lessons need to be learned, we make sure they are.
Let me be clear, there are a great many inefficiencies in the private sector. Indeed, some of the most catastrophic failures uncovered by Audit Scotland in recent years are publicly-funded ICT projects out-sourced to big private global corporations.
But the conduct, expenditure and governance of our public sector rightly calls for close scrutiny. After all, last year alone £48 billion of public money was spent by the Scottish Government and other devolved public bodies.
As we continue to deal with the human and economic cost of the pandemic, it is more important than ever that we have full disclosure and transparency by the Scottish Government and the whole of the public sector. Which is why, in the coming months, we will be scrutinising reports on personal protective equipment, the vaccine programme and Scotland’s economic recovery. Our purpose is to consider both how public money has been spent and what difference that spending has made.
We will also be pressing the Scottish Government to finally publish a full financial record of its own activity and performance in a set of consolidated accounts. Something it promised to do five years ago.
This is not simply a matter of public interest but of public trust in politics. It points to a much deeper democratic deficit: the absence of key data which, in turn, means there is all too often no measure of the effectiveness of public policies or their outcomes, and as a consequence little evidence to inform future decision-making.
There will be times when public audit will expose incompetence, irregularities or, in extreme cases, fraud. At the root of these failures almost always lies weak governance and leadership, poor planning – especially workforce planning, and unhealthy organisational cultures.
As the Convener of the parliament’s Public Audit Committee, I am in a privileged position to lead our work in scrutinising how the money voted on by Parliament is appropriated and spent.
We will be forensic, follow the facts, follow the money and follow up failures to make sure change is affected and sustained.
At a time of renewed pressure on our public services, we will shine a light on the good as well as the bad. We will probe power without fear or favour, at all times working in the interests of the people, and in so doing we will strive to defend and strengthen the very foundations of our democracy.
Richard Leonard is Convener of the Scottish Parliament's Public Audit Committee
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