Statement from the Public Accounts Committee

9 February 2011

The Public Accounts Committee has today (Tuesday 8 February) received the resignation of the external auditors to the Wales Audit Office accounts.

The Committee has been examining these accounts after concerns were raised about the accuracy of the organisation’s financial statements between 2005 and 2010 and, as part of its consideration, it has looked at the role of KTS Owens Thomas.

It took evidence from KTS Owens Thomas at its meeting on 19 January and following that meeting it had some residual concerns.

These concerns were communicated to the external auditors and yesterday Committee Chair, Darren Millar AM, received a letter of resignation from KTS Owens Thomas which stated that there had been:

“..an irretrievable breakdown in the professional relationship between ourselves and our client….this has made the prospect of us continuing in office untenable.”

Darren Millar AM said:

“As a Committee we have a number of concerns regarding the way in which the accounts of the Auditor General have been prepared in previous years.

“Whilst the primary responsibility for this rests with the Auditor General, the role of the external auditors also required our consideration.

“After a careful look at their role, we raised a number of concerns with KTS Owens Thomas and they have since resigned.

“We will now turn our attention to appointing new auditors and to finalising our findings in relation to the Wales Audit Office’s role in the preparation of its accounts.”

The Public Accounts Committee will now take the necessary steps to appoint new auditors to the accounts of the Auditor General before the end of the financial year.

Its work on investigating the preparation of the Auditor General’s accounts continues and the Committee intends to report on its findings in relation to the Wales Audit Office before the end of March.