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Wandering in the twilight of the undead of the Audit Commission, I ponder the questions being asked about life after the commission. Nicola Bulbeck is joint chief executive of Torridge and Teignbridge DCs An echoing emptiness of endless corridors, shadows and dead-ends? Or will our new audit adversary assume a definite form? Cash savings and spare bodies as a result of [communities secretary] Eric Pickles' stake through the heart if not soul of the commission are more apparent than real, since authorities which employed a room full of staff sweating blood to polish data and check the maths prior to a visitation are the stuff of figment rather than fact. So, should we drape ourselves in garlic as we keep an eye on the night sky, and make sure that the boxes of earth in the empty office really are the compost from the recycled food waste rather than the temporary resting place of a former CAA lead? The commission may be looking a little pale and weak – but we have all been caught out like that before, and it or others will return...... In the void between dusk and the new dawn, our challenge as a sector is, can we manage ourselves? It's a scary but thrilling door through which to venture. No more whimpering about ‘the wrong measures'. Instead, managers and members must choose their own destiny, and prove they can manage the measures which matter on their watch. Across Teignbridge and Torridge, we have set a strategic context of cost, quality and productivity which for us strikes the balance that must be made to manage value for money. With no unplanned reductions in service quality, we are targeting what matters most to the customer – riding the debate about who the customer is – and measuring that. So who is homing in on us? What forms will the born-again assessors assume? An army of armchair auditors rising to bring the council to account? What will their weapon of choice be – a sharpened pen? Responding to Freedom of Information Act inquiries has taught us how time-consuming and hidden costly armchair adversaries can be. And since time is money, this has the potential to bite more deeply than the commission. And just when we thought light had dawned and it was safe for the sector to self-govern, the shadow of a secretary of state suite of measures to focus us on cost and productivity falls across our horizon. A silver bullet for us all to look forward to. Happy new year! Nicola Bulbeck is joint chief executive of Torridge and Teignbridge DCs

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WHITEHALL

District View

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