Clause 10 - Accounting officer
Public Audit (Wales) Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Mr Don Touhig (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Wales), Department for Constitutional Affairs; Islwyn, Labour/Co-operative)
The amendment would limit to three months the period for which the Audit Committee may designate a member of the Auditor General's staff as the Wales Audit Office's temporary accounting officer. That is an arbitrary and inappropriate time limit. The Bill makes provision designating the Auditor General as the accounting officer for Wales for the Wales Audit Office. The consequence of such an amendment would be that if the post of Auditor General became vacant, or the Auditor General was incapacitated for more than three months, the Audit Committee would have to consider alternative arrangements with a view to making a fresh temporary appointment.
Under existing accountancy officer conventions for England and Wales, arrangements are made for designating an acting accounting officer if the accounting officer is incapacitated for four weeks or more. There is no reason to suppose that similar arrangements will not apply in the Wales Audit Office. If an acting accounting officer is competent to perform the duties, there is no reason why he or she should not continue them until the appointment of a new Auditor General or until his or her return to work. The amendment would also create an inconsistency with other statutory arrangements for the designation of acting accounting officers—for example, in respect of the Welsh Administration ombudsman under the
Government of Wales Act 1998. I hope that the hon. Gentleman finds that helpful, and that he will therefore ask leave to withdraw the amendment.