Public Sector Audit Appointments (PSAA) has announced that it has secured 96.5% of the capacity required to appoint auditors to councils and other local government bodies that have opted into the national scheme.
To secure the remaining capacity, a “rapid supplementary procurement” of four small lots is to take place from 25 August. The nine registered audit firms that completed pre-qualification earlier this year will be invited to submit responses by 13 September.
“We are pleased to have reached this position, but know we are not quite there yet. We are calling on the market, on whom we are wholly dependent, to respond positively to enable us to achieve the capacity we need,” said Julie Schofield, PSAA’s senior manager for business and procurement.
PSAA previously confirmed that 99% (470 out of 475) eligible bodies had opted into the programme for the five years to 31 March 2028. “Eligible bodies” include local authorities, combined authorities, police and fire bodies, national parks, passenger transport executives, waste authorities and functional bodies.
We are pleased to have reached this position, but know we are not quite there yet. We are calling on the market, on whom we are wholly dependent, to respond positively to enable us to achieve the capacity we need.
Auditor appointment deadline
A consultation process will begin in October 2022, with PSAA aiming to confirm the appointment of named audit firms to each body by 31 December.
There is a statutory duty for PSAA to appoint an auditor for every eligible body that opts in. If the supplementary procurement does not result in the remaining lots being filled, there is an option for PSAA to enforce a two-year extension to one or more of the existing contracts originally issued in 2017.
PSAA currently contracts with five firms: Grant Thornton (40%), EY (30%), Mazars (18%), Deloitte (6%) and BDO (6%). An updated market breakdown will be confirmed after the completion of the supplementary procurement.
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