When we first mentioned our parliamentary candidate Susan Gaszczak we described her as “our kind of candidate”
One example of why she’s an ‘onlinefocus’ kind of candidate is that she’s not keen on the inflated role that the Audit Commission has nowadays over council business. The Audit Commission used to be about financial audits, now it’s about inspecting and assessing councils on all kinds of criteria. Councils have to spend a huge amount of officer time preparing for inspections and it often distracts them from their ordinary work.
Coucnils nowadays spend too much time getting different boxes ticked on forms to satisfy the latest whims of central government and the Audit Commission….
Looking at an item on the Social Liberal Forum about reining in the Audit Commission we were pleased to see Susan’s comments about creating a more local, more realistic type of inspection:
Inspections should be handled locally, by people who see the day to day service but are not connected with the service. They should be driven by residents or the results of the specified service. Councillors should be given more powers to be able to scrutinize in much more depth.
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By doing this we would save millions in lost man hours, spun reports and loss of service for residents because officers are too tied up reporting to the inspectors.