Public Audit in Jersey: A Thinkpiece

Background

Public audit provides independent assurance to the people of Jersey on the extent to which public money is spent economically, efficiently and effectively and on whether the controls and governance arrangements in place within public bodies demonstrate value for money. Delivering that assurance requires that the framework for public audit is comprehensive and robust.

Scope

The Thinkpiece draws on the C&AG’s experience from her first year in office and a public consultation which took place during 2020. It is designed to stimulate debate and sets out proposals in respect of:

• annual reporting by States established and States controlled entities
• entities to which the C&AG appoints auditors
• assurance arrangements for other States established and States controlled entities
• the assurance framework; and
• the governance of the Office of the C&AG.

In respect of annual reports, the Thinkpiece builds on the C&AG’s report on Annual Reporting (August 2020).

Conclusions

There is a need for a consistent framework for the production of annual reports and accounts for States established and States controlled entities. Consideration should also be given to setting out a consistent definition in legislation of States established and States controlled entities with a list maintained of entities that meet this definition.

To accompany the framework for annual reports and accounts, there should be a consistent and coherent statutory framework for the provision of independent assurance on the reported results of States established and States controlled entities. 

The Thinkpiece also made a number of recommendations to improve the resilience of the governance arrangements for the Office of the C&AG.