AS THE public spending watchdog, Audit Scotland is responsible for checking whether approximately £37 billion of taxpayers’ money is spent wisely and contributes to the efficient delivery of public services.

A Best Companies’ “One to Watch” organisation, the independent body has been a Living Wage employer since November 2015 and is home to around 270 professionals who work together to scrutinise the spending of more than 200 public bodies in Scotland on behalf of the Auditor General for Scotland, Caroline Gardner, and the Accounts Commission.

Their work is reported in public and plays a key role in holding public bodies to account for their spending and performance. In the past year the organisation has reported on a wide range of high-profile policy areas in the public interest, including local government, the NHS, higher education, colleges and Scotland’s growing financial powers.

They are one of more than 600 organisations in Scotland that have signed up to the scheme to become accredited as official Living Wage Employers, giving their workers at least £8.45 per hour, since it was launched in April 2014.

“We are committed to delivering quality, cost-effective world-class audit and we regularly benchmark ourselves alongside audit bodies both within the UK and internationally,” said Diane McGiffen, chief operating officer. “Our well-established reputation for carrying out independent, robust scrutiny of Scotland’s public purse is a tribute to the dedication of our workforce.

“As an organisation that knows the value of investing in and nurturing our staff, signing on for Living Wage Accreditation in 2015 was a demonstration of our commitment to tackling in-work poverty in Scotland and ensuring that everyone who has a role to play in the important work we do has the opportunity to provide for themselves and their families.”

One of Audit Scotland’s first acts as a Living Wage employer was to ensure that everyone directly employed by the organisation was covered by the scheme, so it increased the salary bands of its student placements and Modern Apprenticeship posts.

Audit Scotland already operates one of the biggest public-sector accountancy trainee schemes in Scotland, giving graduates a career at the same time as enabling them to work towards becoming a chartered accountant with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (ICAS). Since 2000, nearly 100 graduates have qualified as public-sector auditors through the scheme.

Building on that annual campaign, the organisation recently approved plans to start piloting a similar scheme for school leavers, due to launch later this year, which will be covered by the Scottish Living Wage guarantee.

Audit Scotland’s Living Wage principles extend to its procurement practices, so that consideration is always given to Fair Work Practices when awarding contracts, including the Living Wage and Scottish Living Wage. This has ensured, for example, that the cleaning contract for its three offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness are with firms whose staff are paid the Scottish Living Wage.

McGiffen added: “Adopting the Scottish Living Wage has been important to colleagues and is consistent with our values and principles of fairness. We’ve worked hard to apply it to those who work with us directly or through contracts and we are proud to be part of the Scottish Living Wage family.”