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In an ailing political landscape, David Prince considers CIPFA's plans to heal the gaping wound in public perceptions of local government. ‘If a lot of cures are suggested for a disease, it means that the disease is incurable.' Chekhov's comment 100 years ago on Tsarist Russia would have made a fitting frontispiece for CIPFA's manifesto, with its 42 propositions for restoring public confidence in today's business of government. By launching this debate, CIPFA does a valuable service in reasserting the values of trust, confidence, openness and accountability, and in emphasising the place of due process within the rough old trade of politics. Cynics will say accountants – I'm one, too – all too predictably want bloodless schematisation of how government does business. Yet endless public inquiries into national and local government failures prove – at great length and much cost ¬– just how important it is to have clear lines of accountability, consistent processes and a culture of transparency in decision taking. National politicians at the receiving end of media rough justice might just welcome CIPFA's calm and persuasive guidance on how to heal the body politic, thus reconnecting with an electorate disenchanted by spin and scandal, and crying out for integrity and efficiency. Whether, as urged, they will shun short-termism or eschew eye-catching initiatives has longish odds. Yet, as Hippocrates said ‘healing is a matter of time, but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity'. The manifesto would have gained from heeding the Biblical medical advice of ‘Physician, heal thyself'. Local government officers and civil servants have almost as much to do as politicians in restoring public trust in government, not just in what they do but how they do it, and how that feels to the public. Local taxpayers must have been astounded to see council officers consult m'learned friends about criticism of their handling of investments in Icelandic banks. Yes, due process and rule of law matter. But to the public, whose cash looked at risk, it must have felt that professional finance officers, not politicians, had let them down. That doesn't help local government rebuild trust upwards from the grassroots. Intuitively, it feels right that chief finance officers are members of the leadership team – although that bit of the manifesto feels more about CIPFA members' status than the wider public interest. As a taxpayer, I'd have preferred a much heavier emphasis on the personal fiduciary duty of finance and accounting officers to be stern stewards of the public purse, whose financial leadership role is earned through the values they exude. We all want simpler, clearer financial information and reporting to show how resources are delivering objectives. Yet, I sat in three audit committees last month with auditors and finance staff quibbling on arcane aspects of International Financial Reporting Standards, using terms utterly meaningless to customers, and at a cost that would have added tangible benefit on the front line. Will any taxpayer or user of service ever believe that Treasury, NAO, Audit Commission or CIPFA have improved the management and stability of the public finances by imposing IFRS on public sector delivery bodies at this time? CIPFA, rightly and bravely, calls for whole of government accounts that make clearer the Government's current and longer-term liabilities, so bringing hard facts into the current political ping-pong on the state of the nation's finances and whether or when expenditure must fall, or taxes rise. Although the person in the street might feel, with some justification that, with the honourable exception of Audit Commission chief executive, Steve Bundred, the alarm signals of the nation's bean counting community should have sounded sooner through the political fog. Reactions to the banking crisis showed the public felt more let down by the watchdogs, in whom they had some trust, than by the bankers and politicians in whom they had little. But, crucially, the manifesto does put users of services centre stage. It rightly calls for a louder consumer voice in developing public policy, and in providing advice and feedback on experience of services and ways of improving efficiency. That's a proposition which really is achievable by every policy-maker and manager. It doesn't require Damascene conversion of all politicians. It immediately adds to the life chances and dignity of real people's lives. It's the best possible way of displaying integrity and rebuilding trust. David Prince is former chief executive of the Standards Board for England

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WHITEHALL

Give the public a voice

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