Monitoring Officer Report April 2018 LocalGovernmentLawyer 22 Governance is a word which can mean different things to different people. For some the very mention of the word is time to turn off and go and do something less boring. But for the local authority monitoring officer it is one of, if not the, key elements of the job. But governance is not just the domain of the monitoring officer, it is everyone’s responsibility. Any organisation can only have good governance if it is embedded in the very essence of the organisation. If a culture goes bad, the best monitoring officer in the world will not be able to turn it around on their own. A local authority’s governance arrangements are often only truly scrutinised when it is under pressure. This is no different from the private sector; from the south sea bubble to the banking crisis, from rotten boroughs to interventions in failing authorities, there are countless examples of failures in governance. These things happened long before we began to add “gate” after every conceivable “scandal”. Whatever the issue it will usually lead to much wringing of hands and promises that lessons will be learned and this will never happen again; and so it is… until the next time. A crucial factor in the success (or otherwise) of the governance arrangements of local authorities is the trinity of statutory officers; the head of paid service, the chief finance (or section 151) officer and the monitoring officer. If these officers work well together then things are likely to stay on track, if there is any weakness in the chain then things will invariably go wrong sooner or maybe later. These senior officers are charged with the responsibility for stepping in if things are going awry. It can often be a lonely and challenging role. The pressures faced Simon Goacher looks at the effect of changes to the Designated Independent Person (DIP) rules on the ability of monitoring officers to fulfil their role of ‘speaking truth unto power’. A difficult job made harder?