The Department had asked PSAA to continue as the appointing body for procuring audit services, unlike the recommendation in Sir Tony’s review to create a new body as a system leader, an Office of Local Audit and Regulation, which would have had responsibility for procuring audit services.48 When we asked why the Department had taken a different approach, it explained that, in its view, including procurement within the system leader would have created a potential conflict of interest and it envisaged there would be a benefit from independence between the procurement process in PSAA, and the oversight of quality in ARGA.49