This summer marks two years since I took up post as Northern Ireland’s Comptroller and Auditor General. In that time, we have seen our public sector move out of a pandemic, which saw unprecedented levels of public spending, into a new period of rising inflation, budgetary pressures and growing demands on public services.
As independent auditors of central and local government, we are consistently scrutinising spending decisions and asking the question “are government officials getting the best value from public funds and delivering effective public services for NI’s citizens?”. In fiscally challenging times such as these, that question is never more pertinent.
The Northern Ireland Audit Office (NIAO) is uniquely placed to deliver and support scrutiny, with direct engagement and insight into the operation of almost every public body here. Our recently published Corporate Plan outlines how we intend to provide independence and excellence in audit to improve public services over the next five years.
Around 70 per cent of our work relates to the annual audit of accounts. Our audit teams have been hard at work in recent months finalising our audits of central government accounts, and I’ll be publishing a summary of my findings later this year. My review of the 2022-23 audits identified some weaknesses and areas for improvement. However, it provided a generally positive reflection of financial management and governance arrangements, with the vast majority of accounts unqualified.
Alongside financial audit is our wide portfolio of public reporting work, where auditors examine whether public services are being delivered in accordance with the key principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness. This work also identifies whether there is scope for improvement or for lessons to be learnt. Our public reports span a range of diverse, often cross–cutting, topics that reflect the public sector’s strategic priorities, significant areas of expenditure and key challenges. The rest of this blog gives a flavour of some our recent work.
A Concerning Health Picture
Over the last year we have published a suite of health–related reports, with common issues and themes emerging. Unsurprisingly, these reports have reflected the enormous pressures on health and social care services, and importantly the impact on patients.
Our report on Waiting Lists found that, over the previous decade, there had been a 185 per cent rise in the numbers of people waiting for an initial outpatient appointment, inpatient treatment, or a diagnostic test – with over 26 per cent of the total NI population on an outpatient or inpatient waiting list. Similar pressures were highlighted with GP services, with over 30 per cent of all practices here seeking crisis support over the last four years. In addition, we have produced conservative estimates that care, treatment and lost productivity related to mental ill–health costs NI around £3.4 billion annually.
The impact of Covid on this sector remains evident in much of our work, but worrying trends often predate the pandemic and are the result of longer–term, strategic issues. A lack of available resources is, of course, a major factor at present. Other factors include an absence of long–term planning to address strategic challenges – for example, workforce availability. Additionally, there is often a lack of quality data to provide insight into how effective previous measures and strategies have been which makes it very difficult for those charged with governance to assess value for money.
Climate and Sustainability
Last year, we collaborated with our counterparts from the rest of the UK to summarise the legislation, policy, strategy, governance and monitoring arrangements regarding approaches to achieving net zero – both at national level and within each devolved administration. This reflected the scale of the challenges facing the public sector, and NI’s progress in meeting its ambitions and obligations. We will address this subject area again in future audits. Recent reports show that targets for all NI rivers and lakes to achieve ‘good’ ecological status by 2027 are not going to be met and that long-term underinvestment in local water infrastructure is seriously hampering the progression of new housing and other important development. I also recently published a factual review of waste management, Approximately 7.7 million tonnes of waste is generated here every year, with around 65 per cent of this relating to waste from construction, demolition and excavation. The review found some positive progress being made, such as Northern Ireland having the second highest recycling rate for household waste in the whole of the UK. However, our target of achieving Net Zero by 2050 remains a very challenging one, and spend on waste management by local councils, who are responsible for collecting around just 10 per cent of waste, is already around £170 million annually.
Looking Back
It’s also important for us to undertake follow–up studies. These consider how departments and public bodies have responded to previous NIAO findings and, hopefully, where progress has been made. Our 2023 report on major capital projects followed an initial review in 2018. Disappointingly, the report found a lack of progress, with overruns costs of 11 flagship projects jumping from £700 million to close to £1.94 billion.
Our report on child poverty found one in five children in NI is living in relative poverty. Child poverty is also estimated to cost the public purse between £825m and £1 billion annually. Despite this, NI has not had a child poverty strategy for almost two years – during a cost–of–living crisis. It’s crucial that the new anti–poverty strategy is supported with clear accountability arrangements and results in a truly collaborative cross–departmental approach. I hope our report can act as a catalyst for change.
Looking Ahead
The NIAO’s public reports form the basis of official inquiries by the Assembly’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC), which allows MLAs to scrutinise public expenditure. The return of the Executive and Assembly earlier this year led to a very welcome return of this vital oversight role. This Committee has hit the ground running at pace, having recently published its first report, on our Mental Health Services, and completing a further inquiry into public sector procurement. I’m really looking forward to continuing to assist the work of the PAC.
To that end, we recently published our 2024–25 Public Reporting Programme, summarising the areas we intend to review over the next year. This Programme identifies three key Public Reporting Themes: ‘Improving Public Services’, ‘Digital and Skills’ and ‘Climate and Sustainability’. These themes will underpin our upcoming public reports, including reports on Major IT Projects, Skills for a Modern Economy, and Waste Crime.
Promoting Good Practice
Its also essential that the NIAO continues to promote and disseminate good practice in the public sector. Our good practice guides, developed to support officials in achieving value for money and implementing policy, are invaluable in enabling us to profile the success stories from right across our public sector. Past topics for guides include Board Effectiveness, School Governance and Making Partnerships Work. In fiscally challenging times, such guidance is more important than ever.
Our 2023 guide on Innovation and Risk Management has been welcomed by those working in public service. As society and government faces increasingly complex challenges, the imperative for an innovative public sector has never been higher. As auditors, we recognise that innovation can come with risk but, we also recognise that potential risk should not be an impediment to new ideas and ways of working. Indeed, well–managed, calculated risk–taking is a necessary and accepted feature of most types of innovation, as is being tolerant of reasonable failure.
Dorinnia Carville, Comptroller and Auditor General, Northern Ireland Audit Office.
