星空传媒

The Audit Commission's recent annual report again demonstrates its apparent inability to draw sensible and constructive conclusions from its inspections.

The only specific analysis of Welsh performance was "Welsh inspections revealed proportionately more poor services than good ones (20% poor against only 7% good)". This crude analysis was formed from only 15 reports and effectively translates as "out of 15 reports in Wales, three were poor and one was good", a translation that demonstrates how worthless the original comparison really is.

The Audit Commission should have more accurately concluded that:

• a vast majority of housing services in Wales were rated fair or good (80%), while 60% of all services inspected showed promising prospects for improvement
  
• of the three reports that showed a poor level of service, two showed promising signs for improvement.

The Audit Commission's simplistic approach to performance analysis and headline-grabbing not only distorts the facts but does a disservice to the majority of services and authorities in Wales that are, on the whole, performing satisfactorily and have promising prospects for improvement. It appears the "metropolitan myth" that Welsh local government is inherently poor, highlighted in a Cardiff University report last year, is still held by the Audit Commission.

The Welsh Local Government Association and Welsh local government are not complacent. We are well aware that improvement needs to continue. Fortunately, through the Wales Programme for Improvement and a closer working relationship with Audit Commission Wales, Wales is moving away from the use of such simplistic, often inaccurate and ultimately demotivating comparisons.