Review of the Governance and Accountability Arrangements for the Northern Ireland Assembly Audit Office (NIAO) and Northern Ireland Public Services Ombudsman (NIPSO)
At its meeting on 21 October 2020 the Audit Committee agreed to a Review of the Governance and Accountability Arrangements for the NIAO and NIPSO.
Additional information and relevant documentation is included below:
Draft Terms of Reference:
Research papers:
- Assembly’s Audit Committee and its GB counterparts: A comparative perspective
- Public Audit Governance
- Governance and accountability arrangements for the Offices of the Ombudsman in other legislatures
- Investigation of complaints against local councillors for breaches of codes of conduct
- Public Audit Governance The role of the Accounting Officer
- Standards of Public Audit Governance
Official Report – Research and Information Service (RaISe) Briefings:
- Wednesday 25 November 2020 - Review of the Governance and Accountability Arrangements for the NIAO and the NIPSO: RAISE Briefing on Public Audit Governance
- Wednesday 25 November 2020 - Review of the Governance and Accountability Arrangements for the NIAO and the NIPSO: RAISE Briefing on Ombudsman's Offices in other Legislatures
Written Submissions:
- February 2021 - The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy (CIPFA) (PDF, 8 pages, 150KB)
- 29 January 2021 - David Heald, Professor of Public Sector Accounting at the Adam Smith Business School, University of Glasgow (PDF, 10 pages, 495KB)
- 29 January 2021 - Dr Helen Foster, Ulster University Business School (PDF, 22 pages, 399KB)
- 18 February 2021 - Northern Ireland Audit Office Report - Governance in the Northern Ireland Audit Office
- 19 March 2021 - Mr Peter Tyndall, International Ombudsman Institute
- 18 March 2021 - Mr Brian Thompson, University of Liverpool
- 19 March 2021 - Dr Chris Gill, University of Glasgow
- 29 March 2021 - Dr Richard Kirkham, University of Sheffield
- 9 April 2021 - NIPSO
- 7 May 2021 - Ian Williams, Chair of the Public Services Ombudsman for Wales’ Audit & Risk Assurance Committee
- 10 May 2021 - Anne Jones Chair of Advisory Panel, Public Services Ombudsman for Wales
- 24 May 2021 - David Watt, Scottish Public Services Ombudsman Advisory Audit Board
- 27 May 2021 - Deep Sagar, Audit and Risk Assurance Committee, Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman
- 27 May 2021 - Linda Farrant, Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee PHSO and Gill Kilpatrick
- 27 May 2021 - Audit and Risk Committee, NIPSO
Correspondence:
- 19 April 2021 - C&AG - Single auditor for the public sector
- 19 April 2021 - C AG - potential remit, powers and membership of a statutory Board of the NIAO
- 20 April 2021 - Public Accounts Committee - Review of the governance and accountability of NIAO
- 30 April 2021 - Department for Communities - Single auditor for the public sector
- 6 May 2021 - Minister of Finance - Comments on research paper
- 22 June 2021 - NIPSO – Whistleblowing policy and ARC member removal
- 27 October 2021 - NIAO - Review of Governance and Accountability
- 26 October 2021 - Northern Ireland Assembly Commission - Recruitment of a Comptroller and Auditor General
