Chamber and committees

But the proposal has come to this commission from the board of Audit Scotland.

We are still in the age of sticks and not carrots.

Yes, and then I will go on to my next question.

The reason why we are interested in those costs is because, from one year to the next, there is a massive increase of 57.5 per cent. That sounds massive. Does that tell us that there has been a failure in the preceding period? It sounds a lot more than an adjustment; it sounds like a substantial leap in the fees that are charged to FE colleges.

Okay. You have described that the increase will meet the salary of a controller of audit. What is the rest of the additional expenditure for?

You say that it is tangled up, but a lot of the work that you do either is work that you commission Audit Scotland to do or is badged as a joint report.

As a commission, we have a strategic interest in the relationship between the Accounts Commission and Audit Scotland. You talk about pulling apart. It is not a separation that we are talking about, is it?

I have one final process question. I presume that this is the will of the Government minister who is responsible for local government. How does that work in the environment of the Audit Scotland board, for example? Does the minister sit on the board or is a directive issued to the board? Are you the missionary for the minister on that board, Mr Moyes?

Okay. I will ask the Auditor General or Alan Alexander if they want to come in. For completeness, is the discussion that you have had with the minister a matter of public record? Is it minuted, for example?

I invite Craig Hoy to ask some questions.

One thing that the Auditor General has spoken about is the ambition for there to be more innovation in the public sector. He even used the expression “risk taking”. Do you think that you are doing things that are innovative and which involve taking some—calculated, I presume—risk?