Public Services Ombudsman (Wales) Act 2019

Audit

18 (1) The accounts prepared by the Ombudsman for a financial year must be submitted by the Ombudsman to the Auditor General for Wales no later than 30 November in the following financial year.

(2) The Auditor General for Wales must—

(a) examine, certify and report on each set of accounts submitted to the Auditor General for Wales under this paragraph, and

(b) subject to sub-paragraph (3), no later than four months after the accounts are so submitted, lay before the Assembly a copy of them as certified by the Auditor General for Wales together with the Auditor General for Wales’s report on them (“a copy of the certified accounts and report”).

(3) The Auditor General for Wales may lay a copy of the certified accounts and report before the Assembly after the four-month deadline mentioned in sub-paragraph (2)(b) where it is not reasonably practicable for the Auditor General for Wales to meet that deadline.

(4) Where sub-paragraph (3) applies, the Auditor General for Wales must—

(a) before the four-month deadline mentioned in sub-paragraph (2)(b), lay before the Assembly a statement explaining why it is not reasonably practicable for the Auditor General for Wales to lay a copy of the certified accounts and report before the Assembly before that deadline, and

(b) lay a copy of the certified accounts and report before the Assembly as soon as reasonably practicable after that deadline.

(5) In examining accounts submitted to the Auditor General for Wales under this paragraph the Auditor General for Wales must, in particular, be satisfied that—

(a) the expenditure to which the accounts relate has been incurred lawfully and in accordance with the authority which governs it, and

(b) the Ombudsman has made appropriate arrangements for the economic, efficient and effective use of the Ombudsman’s resources.