THE big question today is just how damning the Wales Audit Office will be in its review of the good governance of the States of Guernsey.

Sadly, there is little prospect that the report will be complimentary about how government does business. Too many other investigations have highlighted the lack of direction, lack of leadership and lack of accountability inherent in the way its business is conducted for the WAO to come to anything other than a critical conclusion.

So the issue is just how bad its verdict will be. The signs are not encouraging. Unusually for such a report, it is not being released until 4pm and that’s to give time for all States members to be briefed on its findings ahead of the people of Guernsey being updated via the media.

Damage limitation? Quite possibly, but it may also be the Public Accounts Committee, which commissioned the review, wanting deputies to concentrate on the message rather than the messenger and its delivery.

In any event, islanders might say, what difference does it make, because this is only governance? Wasn’t that what was lacking when the banks tried to bring down the entire global financial system?

But far from being some theoretical hocus pocus, good governance is the application of six underlying principles without which no public body can demonstrate that it is delivering sustainable, value-for-money services in a transparent and accountable manner.

In other words, getting a high score is absolutely fundamental for any government which wants to tell its electorate and taxpayers that they are getting a good return on the money taken from them by bureaucracy and the politicians.

Seen in that light, the presentation later today by the Wales Audit Office could well be a defining moment for the States of Guernsey – particularly in how members react to the judgement.

The Guernsey Press is confident that the score will be low because of what has gone before and because the machinery of government reforms in 2004 were a shallow fudge designed to satisfy political egos rather than practical necessity.

So, rather like A-level students, deputies and their advisers are today anxiously awaiting their good governance grades.

And unless the WAO has allowed standards to slip, there won’t be much to celebrate.