Victor Boyhan (Independent)
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I have great faith and confidence in the LGAS, which does a very good job. That tees up all of these questions for us. We have all of these reports and they tee up all of these questions. When we go back and look historically at the reports, we see this re-occurring theme, like the fixed asset property register, and then the lame excuses from chief executives, who come out and say, “We are developing new systems.”

There are councils that have been developing systems for six or seven years and then it gets a one-liner to say it is a work in progress. I will not even suggest here what I might have thought about that. I am conscious about the circulars and the legislation and that the LGAS is hemmed in by that. Ms Larkin is not here to tell us about legislation. I appreciate and respect that also. The reoccurring theme from the members here today relates to how we impose sanctions. Chief executives are exceptionally well paid. I am supportive of them. They have a most difficult job but ultimately they are accountable and what I have an issue with is accountability. I will give an example. Again, I will not single out councils because that would not be fair. I acknowledge the work of the external chairs of the audit committees but I know of a number of them where the chair will come before the elected members in the public chamber where they are meeting, and they are very confident about presenting to it. I do not know if the meeting are private or if they are webcast but I think these would be webcast. The chief executive should be compelled. If we need to amend legislation or a regulation, go to the Minister or get him in after we have had this discussion with the witnesses, that is a matter for the committee, but each of the chief executives is the Accounting Officer ultimately and they are well paid to do the job. They are the chief executive of the local authority, and it would be ideal to have a situation where the chair of the committee and the chief executive answer questions.

I want to ask Ms Larkin a question. This report is for 2020, and there are 31 of them. Is she in a position to tell us or does she even know if each of those reports has been considered by each of the 31 local authorities? She may not be in a position to know. I understand that. Is she in a position to tell us that?