John Bourn

Sir John Bryant Bourn (21 February 1934 – 22 November 2022) was a British auditor who was the Comptroller and Auditor General and therefore a head of the National Audit Office.

Early life and education Bourn was born in Hornsey, London, on 21 February 1934. He attended Southgate School from 1945 to 1951. He completed a B.Sc. and Ph.D. in economics at the London School of Economics.

Public career Bourn entered the UK civil service at the top-entry level. He worked in the Air Ministry before spending a year at HM Treasury. He then spent time at the Civil Service College, Ministry of Defence and the Northern Ireland Office, where he was for some time Deputy Under Secretary of State, the UK government's most senior civil servant in Northern Ireland. He was also appointed the first Auditor General for Wales until Jeremy Colman took over this role on 1 April 2005.

In March 2006 he was appointed the first Independent Advisor on Ministerial Interests by Tony Blair, to advise ministers on potential clashes between their public duties and private affairs, and to investigate any claims that the rules have been broken. This appointment was revoked in 2007 following the controversy around his travel expenditure. where he specialised in corporate governance arrangements and improvements in the public and private sectors, particularly in banks. Among other non-executive appointments he was also a Companion of the Institute of Management and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply.

Academic career Bourn was a part-time teacher at the London School of Economics from the time he was a graduate student, serving as a visiting professor from 1983 to 2013. He continued to teach at the School on executive and custom programmes, with particular reference to students and participants from overseas, including India, Indonesia, China and Hong Kong, Brazil, Thailand, Kazakhstan, and Spain. He specialised in issues of public sector management and policy analysis, including financial management, accountancy and audit, and covered UK and overseas experience.

In May 1998, he was awarded an Honorary Degree from the Open University as Doctor of the University, having also being awarded the highest honour from the London School of Economics, an Honorary Fellow. He started his career at the London School of Economics where he took a first class honours degree in Economics and a PhD. He was also an Honorary Fellow of the University of Brighton, an Honorary Doctor of Laws of Brunel University, and an Honorary Doctor of Business Administration of the University of the West of England.

Criticism

Al-Yamamah arms deals

Bourn's role at the Ministry of Defence, from 1985 to 1988, before becoming Comptroller and Auditor General, was as the most senior civil servant responsible for defence procurement. This, according to The Spectator, would have given him a "ringside seat" in the negotiations surrounding the first Al-Yamamah arms deal.

15 months after becoming Comptroller and Auditor General, in April 1989, Bourn announced a National Audit Office inquiry into the Al-Yamamah deal. The report was drawn up between 1989 and 1991, and was presented to Lord Sheldon, then the chairman of the Public Accounts Committee. However, the report was never published, making it the only NAO report to have ever been withheld. The agencies were reportedly considering a "dawn raid of the NAO’s offices" in order to obtain the report. A spokesman for Bourn claimed that he normally stayed at hotels which were "recommended by the host organisation", but an investigation by The Daily Telegraph suggested that on several of the most expensive trips, no such recommendations were made.

It emerged that Bourn travelled to and from his office in Victoria, London in a chauffeur driven vehicle at the taxpayers' expense. The financial cost of this is unknown because it had been funded directly from the consolidated fund and therefore was not included within the NAO's accounts. Additionally, the personal benefit to his wife of NAO-funded travel had not been fully accounted for. When HM Revenue and Customs investigated these as taxable benefits, Bourn was found liable for six years of unpaid taxes - but the outstanding sum of about £100,000 (including a fine) was settled by the NAO out of taxpayers' money. In October 2015, Private Eye highlighted how criticisms of Bourn's expenditure had been removed from Wikipedia, citing right to be forgotten.

Personal life and death Bourn was married to Ardita and they had a son and a daughter.