Auditor General for Scotland
Audit Scotland publishes reports on behalf of the Auditor General who:
- is appointed by the Crown
- is independent
- reports to the Scottish Parliament
- is held accountable for Audit Scotland’s work.
Audit Scotland helps the Auditor General by investigating, on his behalf, various aspects of how public bodies work.
The Auditor General’s role is to:
- examine how public bodies spend public money
- make sure they manage their finances to the highest standards
- make sure they achieve value for money.
Public bodies that the Auditor General scrutinises include:
- departments of the Scottish Government
- NHS bodies
- further education colleges
- Scottish Water
- government agencies and non-departmental public bodies (NDPBs) such as Scottish Enterprise, the Scottish Prison Service and Historic Scotland.
The Auditor General does not scrutinise:
- local councils
- police boards
- fire boards.
