Yes, I have a lot of respect for anyone who does a proper piece of work in audit control. It is not always easy but it does uncover terrible truths. For instance, governments are there to govern and to pay to keep the UK operating as it should. So, who or what propelled Tory cash snatchers into power to raid all possible and impossible coffers for everyone and everything but the UK? And seems not to have learnt the lesson of governing and paying to get the UK back working properly...
Another thought-provoking piece, thank you Mr Dunt. And a last paragraph that made me laugh out loud on public transport, which still draws attention to oneself even in Christmas party season on a train from Glasgow.
For anyone who hasn't taken up Mr Dunt's subscription guilt trip, I recommend it if you can afford it. I subscribed to a few substacks before the General Election, thinking I would get a steady stream of interesting and informative views. One writer obsessed about Israel and another went silent for months until publishing an anodyne notelet on the US election. Only Mr Dunt provided a reliably wide-ranging and entertainingly splenic commentary on public life over the last few months.
Have a good Christmas Mr D and thanks for helping to keep me sane this year. Sometimes I totally despair (mainly every time I hear Fartage or BadEnoch speak) but we must not give up, that's what they want..
If only the big 4 accountancy firms audited the private sector the same way that the NAO does.
Shareholders deserve to know what is being done by the businesses they own, but instead decades of agency theory and boardroom lobbying of government has led to a situation where boardrooms ask their pet accountants to make themselves look good, in line with ever laxer reporting requirements that mean fewer & fewer details and no reporting at all if the business is smaller than a threshold.
Auditing firms are all obsessed by their profits and thus squeal if anyone tries to look into an "irregularity" even if this minor infraction finally exposes a fraud...
I didn’t think I could love Ian Dunt more and then he only goes and shows his inner nerd with this wonderful appreciation of the NAO. I am one of ‘those people’ who have NAO reports dropping into their inboxes whenever they release these sometimes forensic stilettos and it’s a great joy to realise Mr Dunt enjoys these drops in the same way I do. Nerds united.
As so often I agree with pretty much every word, but there is a counterview, not about the NAO per se, but about the rise of 'audit society'. I don't know if you know it, but there was a fascinating book by Michael Power called 'The Audit Society. Rituals of Verification' (1999) which made out a good case that the spread of auditing beyond its traditional accounting meaning is associated with the erosion of trust in institutions (though I guess there is a chicken and egg aspect to that). It's still well worth reading, and there are similar arguments in the work of the philosopher Onora O'Neill and the anthropologist Marilyn Strathern.
You are wrong, or at least not completely right. I would have agreed with you years ago and then the NAO audited my part of the public sector. What they published was objectively and obviously nonsense. The Exec Summary in particular was politically motivated although the audit work itself was OK. It was clear that the two parts had been written by separate people. It matters because this report is still being referred to now as an authoritative report. I published a critique at the time, but it was glossed over. Perhaps with Labour in power we can try again. I can’t afford to see if this book mentions this specific report, which saddens me. Season’s greetings, love your work. Tristram
Can we have the link to this report so we can see for ourselves? It seems an unlikely tale, but I would be interested to see whether it seemed true. What did the PAC do with the NAO report you condemn?
I also attack it in Chapter 14 of 'The War on Dirty Money'. The PAC/HAC were conducting simultaneous reviews of UK asset recovery at the time, so I cannot recall which one did the damage, which was to take governance away from a multi-agency committee and give it solely to the NCA. My original scathing critique of the NAO was published in (the ever popular) Money Laundering Bulletin. It will take a bit of digging...
Ian if anyone else had suggested buying this book (and I buy a lot) at 36.99 in Paperback I would probably ignore it. But now I am going to and I feel like a massive tome is going to show up.
You expect me to read a fucking article about the National Fucking Audit Office?
Yeah, well of course I did.
Excellent. Ian Dunt at his Ian Duntiest.
Merry Christmas to you, Ian, and all your sick, sick readers.
Oh god, you're going to want to do an Origin Story on the NAO, aren't you...
yes please
do it do it
As a qualified Auditor I appreciate the elevation of potentially the dullest of professions to a status above close family members
Yes, I have a lot of respect for anyone who does a proper piece of work in audit control. It is not always easy but it does uncover terrible truths. For instance, governments are there to govern and to pay to keep the UK operating as it should. So, who or what propelled Tory cash snatchers into power to raid all possible and impossible coffers for everyone and everything but the UK? And seems not to have learnt the lesson of governing and paying to get the UK back working properly...
And Labour seems...
Another thought-provoking piece, thank you Mr Dunt. And a last paragraph that made me laugh out loud on public transport, which still draws attention to oneself even in Christmas party season on a train from Glasgow.
For anyone who hasn't taken up Mr Dunt's subscription guilt trip, I recommend it if you can afford it. I subscribed to a few substacks before the General Election, thinking I would get a steady stream of interesting and informative views. One writer obsessed about Israel and another went silent for months until publishing an anodyne notelet on the US election. Only Mr Dunt provided a reliably wide-ranging and entertainingly splenic commentary on public life over the last few months.
(sigh) "splenetic" of course.
Ian, you are a cruel and ruthless man, telling me I am unwell just because I'm a nerd.and can read the whole of your newsletter
Have a good Christmas Mr D and thanks for helping to keep me sane this year. Sometimes I totally despair (mainly every time I hear Fartage or BadEnoch speak) but we must not give up, that's what they want..
If only the big 4 accountancy firms audited the private sector the same way that the NAO does.
Shareholders deserve to know what is being done by the businesses they own, but instead decades of agency theory and boardroom lobbying of government has led to a situation where boardrooms ask their pet accountants to make themselves look good, in line with ever laxer reporting requirements that mean fewer & fewer details and no reporting at all if the business is smaller than a threshold.
Auditing firms are all obsessed by their profits and thus squeal if anyone tries to look into an "irregularity" even if this minor infraction finally exposes a fraud...
I didn’t think I could love Ian Dunt more and then he only goes and shows his inner nerd with this wonderful appreciation of the NAO. I am one of ‘those people’ who have NAO reports dropping into their inboxes whenever they release these sometimes forensic stilettos and it’s a great joy to realise Mr Dunt enjoys these drops in the same way I do. Nerds united.
As so often I agree with pretty much every word, but there is a counterview, not about the NAO per se, but about the rise of 'audit society'. I don't know if you know it, but there was a fascinating book by Michael Power called 'The Audit Society. Rituals of Verification' (1999) which made out a good case that the spread of auditing beyond its traditional accounting meaning is associated with the erosion of trust in institutions (though I guess there is a chicken and egg aspect to that). It's still well worth reading, and there are similar arguments in the work of the philosopher Onora O'Neill and the anthropologist Marilyn Strathern.
Power's book: https://academic.oup.com/book/26482
You are wrong, or at least not completely right. I would have agreed with you years ago and then the NAO audited my part of the public sector. What they published was objectively and obviously nonsense. The Exec Summary in particular was politically motivated although the audit work itself was OK. It was clear that the two parts had been written by separate people. It matters because this report is still being referred to now as an authoritative report. I published a critique at the time, but it was glossed over. Perhaps with Labour in power we can try again. I can’t afford to see if this book mentions this specific report, which saddens me. Season’s greetings, love your work. Tristram
Can we have the link to this report so we can see for ourselves? It seems an unlikely tale, but I would be interested to see whether it seemed true. What did the PAC do with the NAO report you condemn?
Thanks for your interest, the NAO report in question is here: https://www.nao.org.uk/reports/confiscation-orders-2/
One of my recent critiques is here: https://tristramhicks.substack.com/p/does-crime-pay-in-the-uk
I also attack it in Chapter 14 of 'The War on Dirty Money'. The PAC/HAC were conducting simultaneous reviews of UK asset recovery at the time, so I cannot recall which one did the damage, which was to take governance away from a multi-agency committee and give it solely to the NCA. My original scathing critique of the NAO was published in (the ever popular) Money Laundering Bulletin. It will take a bit of digging...
Thanks as always Ian. The factual voice of reason…..
Ian if anyone else had suggested buying this book (and I buy a lot) at 36.99 in Paperback I would probably ignore it. But now I am going to and I feel like a massive tome is going to show up.
Has your 24 hours run out already? No special offer available that I can see. And I was really tempted by your sakesputch too.
Please do NOT fix the "anything spoon" typo. Wonderful.
Wonderful. In praise of concise experts everywhere. May their enlightened powers live on!