Part 3: Welsh Nhs Bodies
Section 61: Audit of Welsh NHS bodies
128.The section makes the Auditor General responsible for the financial audit of the accounts of Welsh NHS bodies (as defined in section 60), in place of the Audit Commission, which currently audits these accounts. It requires the accounts to be submitted to the Auditor General no later than 5 months following the end of the financial year to which they relate. The Auditor General is required to examine and certify the accounts submitted to him; and to lay a copy of them together with his report on them before the Assembly within 4 months of them being submitted to him.
129.In examining the accounts the Auditor General must satisfy himself, amongst other things, that the body has made proper arrangements for securing economy, efficiency and effectiveness in its use of resources.
Section 62: Co-operation with Assembly, Audit Commission or CHAI
130.The section imposes a duty on the Auditor General to co-operate with the Assembly, the Audit Commission and with CHAI (established by the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003, where it seems appropriate for the efficient and effective discharge of his functions in relation to Welsh NHS bodies. In the case of CHAI, this is consistent with the Assembly’s objective of ensuring effective cross-border co-operation in respect of economy, efficiency and effectiveness studies and other studies which are of common interest and benefit to England and Wales. The section also seeks to ensure that the day-to-day impact, on the Welsh NHS bodies, of the carrying out of studies and reviews is minimised through co-operation between the regulatory bodies.
131.Complementary duties are imposed on the Assembly, the Audit Commission and CHAI via amendments, in Schedule 2 of the Act, to the GOWA, the ACA and the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003 respectively. See also the notes concerning section 64 below.
Section 63: Audit of accounts of officers of Welsh NHS bodies
132.The section applies the Auditor General’s financial audit responsibilities to the accounts of an officer of a Welsh NHS body who holds money or property on its behalf (for instance a named charitable trustee).Section 64: Provision of information by CHAI
133.This section obliges CHAI to provide the Auditor General, if he so requests, with information to enable him to make comparisons between Welsh NHS bodies on the one hand, and English NHS bodies and cross-border Special Health Authorities, on the other. The duty on CHAI applies where the Auditor General is exercising his functions under section 145 or 145A of the GOWA in relation to one or more Welsh NHS bodies – that is, his functions of undertaking or promoting studies into the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of the use of resources by such bodies, or into how they provide their services. The equivalent duty is imposed on the Auditor General by Schedule 2, amending the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003. The intention of these two provisions is to facilitate the raising of standards in both England and Wales by enabling the regulatory bodies to compare practice in the two countries. The duties the two provisions impose are complementary to other duties and powers of co-operation applicable to the Auditor General and CHAI elsewhere in the Act, particularly in section 62 and other provisions of Schedule 2.