I move amendment No. 4:
In page 14, between lines 32 and 33, to insert the following:
"8. —(1) Accounts of elected local authorities (other than those which may be audited by him under other provisions of this Act) shall be audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General in the manner provided in section 6.
(2) For the purposes of subsection (1) of this section, references in section 6 to a vocational education committee and to the Minister for Education shall be construed as references to a local authority and to the Minister for the Environment, respectively.
(3) Fees under section 12 shall not be chargeable by the Comptroller and Auditor General in respect of audits under this section.".
Under this Bill we are proposing that the vocational education committees and the health boards move out from the watchful eye of the local government auditors' office and come under the control of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The decision has been taken that councils on which there are local authority members would not come under the Comptroller and Auditor General but remain under the local government auditors' office. A number of issues arises from this. The staff concerns need to be addressed. That is most important. The trade union, Impact, has made representations about this.
The only way to proceed is to establish a national audit office, as exists in the United Kingdom, whereby the Comptroller and Auditor General's Office would be decentralised and regionalised and would examine all aspects of the accounts of public institutions and the expenditure of public moneys. To draw a distinction between the scrutiny exercised by elected councillors and that by members of health boards and vocational education committees is invalid because the very same councillors are in the majority on health boards and vocational education committees — in other words, the same people are applying the scrutiny under the same procedures. I do not think that is correct and I do not believe the analysis in the White Paper is valid. There should be the possibility, as provided by the new section 8, that the work of local government should be brought under the Comptroller and Auditor General and that all the people in the local government audit service would be transferred to a national audit office.
This makes eminent good sense. The present liaison arrangements, whereby the Comptroller and Auditor General is sent these accounts, are not sufficient. If I want to find out whether a mile of resurfacing of road in County Donegal is cheaper than, for instance in Kerry, I cannot do so at the moment. The Committee of Public Accounts could ask the Comptroller and Auditor General to find out, but individual local government auditors cannot. I am trying to streamline the service so that everything will go in the direction in which the Government is moving for vocational education committees and health boards. This would allow us to establish a league table of effectiveness, of cost structures, of a whole variety of performance of local authorities. As a member of two local authorities, I can say that the facilities are not available for local authorities to analyse expenditure to a satisfactory extent. I do not know what other local authorities' performance level is in terms of value for money. If all this information was coming into one office it would be helpful.
When I was spokesman for health, it became obvious that the prices paid for milk, eggs, butter, cotton wool and laundry services at different hospitals bore no resemblance to each other. In one area, milk suppliers could get together to form a cartel. If the information is fed into one office the Comptroller and Auditor General could study it. Non-medical supplies in the health area are a huge element of the budget. In terms of studies between direct labour of local authority road workers, as opposed to contract services, one could draw comparisons between different parts of the country. In some areas it would pay to have the plant and equipment available for unforeseen weather circumstances.
Money from the central budget to local government is of the order of £300 million, which is not an inconsiderable sum. The White Paper pointed out that health boards and vocational education committees get more money from central funds than do local authorities, but that could change. At the time when rates were abolished the domestic rates support grant accounted for over 50 per cent of the revenue of local government. That is not the case now, but if there was a property tax that could change. The argument put forward by the Government does not hold water. We need a beefed up Comptroller and Auditor General's Office which will become a national audit office for every semi-State company, every non-commercial State body, every body that receives over 50 per cent of its revenue from central funds and every local government body, be it an elected body, a health board or a vocational education committee.
I would ask the Minister to reflect on this and consider it when the Bill is going through the Seanad. My arguments are logical and valid and international experience shows that a national audit office is more effective.