The National Audit plays an important role in advising decision makers in Britain about concerns in the Government's decision making process. It is politically impartial and well respected. It can also inform citizens about its findings. I'm a big fan of its work.
Of course it will always upset some people. Governments can feel that it is always critical - which may not be a fair comment - but the role of the NAO is point out where things have gone wrong, or where the decision making process isn't as good as it could be. But that is the NAO's job - it provides information which MPs (and others) can use to hold decision makers to account.
Oppositions might also feel that the NAO could be more critical of Government. Again, this would be unfair - The NAO does the research - it the politicians whose job it is to draw conclusions about whether the Government is failing.
This week the NAO produced a paper called "Initial learning from the government's response to the COVID-19 Pandemic". It is informative - and gives links to specific NAO inquiries.
The Report is available here
