Lee Budge - District Auditor

I suppose I'm a classic example of how someone can progress and grow within the Audit Commission.

I joined about fifteen years ago and I can honestly say that I haven’t looked back - I’ve been constantly challenged and I get a lot of job satisfaction from what I do. It all started when I was working for a local authority back in 1993 - the local Commission team was actually on our site conducting an audit and I became interested in what they do - their remit seemed so much bigger and the work so much more diverse, so I decided to apply for a position as an auditor. Initially I thought I might stay a couple of years, but I’ve constantly faced interesting and new challenges and had plenty of career development opportunities - so I’ve never wanted to leave!

At the end of the day, what I feel most passionate about is that we help to ensure that citizens receive high quality and good value for money from public services by assisting our clients in improving their service delivery within a framework of strong governance. My role also enables me to stay in touch with the strategic and practical issues associated with running an organisation as I am responsible for the management of the Commission’s finances in the Southern Region. Seeing the results of what I do happening on the ground is incredibly satisfying - hardly a week goes by when there isn’t something I’m really proud of achieving. It’s difficult to pick one example in particular, so here are a few highlights:

• I regularly work with Board members of NHS organisations to assist them in improving their governance and risk management arrangements;
• I helped to develop external audit arrangements within the Republic of Slovenia prior to their accession to the European Union;
• I reviewed a local authority’s services for the homeless which led to substantial improvements in the quality of the service as well as significant financial savings.

In summary? Not only do you get the technical challenges you might expect from a similar role in the private sector, you also get the added bonus of knowing that what you’re doing has a purpose - of knowing it’s all about people and public services rather than profit. That’s what makes it for me.