AS THE States convened this morning at the start of what could be a four-day marathon sitting, members might be forgiven for wondering what they have let themselves in  for.

Quite apart from all the ‘ordinary’ business there also looms the matter of implementing Tribal Helm’s ‘transformation programme’ and the small issue of what to do about a Wales Audit Office report highlighting nought out of 10 for corporate governance.

If the Assembly – as it must – wants to address the waste, inefficiency and lack of financial controls exposed by its external consultants, it has a problem on its hands.

Under the current system, members cannot simply vote in favour of a particular course of action and delegate the implementation to the Policy Council or some other department.

So any disagreement or direction, such as insisting that Housing stops thwarting States recruitment policies, would have to go back to the Assembly to be resolved.

And as the WAO has already observed, the States chamber is not the best place for resolving difficulties because members are not fully briefed.

In particular, the Assembly already has trouble in doing what it should: providing effective scrutiny and holding individuals to account.

As the WAO also notes, the States meets on average only 25 times a year, so it is not surprising that it approves almost everything and every piece of legislation put before it.

Its conclusion? ‘The States of Deliberation does not have sufficient time and its size and structure means that it would be unlikely to be an effective forum to undertake strategic policy formulation or coordinate the work of States’ departments.’

So there is a huge amount that needs doing, much that is already done cannot be shown to provide value for taxpayers’ money, but the Assembly as a whole is incapable of dealing with the mass of problems now facing it.

While this is serious territory, these difficulties are not insurmountable but cannot be ignored.

What happens over this week and the rest of the year will indicate whether the States is serious about working for the benefit of the island as a whole.