Opinion by the Mail's local government reporter Angus Young.
Until recently it was the job of the Audit Commission to keep a close eye on how local councils spent our money.
The public body was created in 1983 and continued to number crunch on behalf of the taxpayer until becoming one of the high-profile victims of Eric Pickles's "bonfire of the quangos" three years ago.
From its ashes emerged a new way of providing external audits on council spending.
Step forward private accountancy giant KPMG, which was awarded a £4.2m contract to examine all council books in Yorkshire and the Humber in a five-year deal as part of a nationwide privatisation of the local government external audit system.
So what's different about the new-look external auditors?
Well, most of the local Audit Commission staff have transferred across to KPMG and former District Auditor Damian Murray now holds the title of company director.
But buried within the firm's first external audit plan produced for Hull City Council is the following fascinating nugget.
Under a section headed: "Our Audit Approach – other" it says: "During our audit work, we may make use of our KPMG Global Services (KGS Audit) team in India to undertake certain basic audit tasks and functions.
"Use of this off-shore team is one of many initiatives we employ to deliver a cost- effective audit service for our clients.
"Although based in India, the KGS Audit team work closely with our local audit teams to undertake certain audit procedures remotely."
Perhaps shifting some of the work to India explains why KPMG's annual fee is 40 per cent cheaper than the last charge incurred by the city council under the old Audit Commission regime.
A seasoned Guildhall employee, who brought this to my attention, rightly points out that all Data Protection Act requirements will no doubt be met under this new arrangement.
But, as my mole suggests, there is a sort of irony given the state of Hull's economy that the council is now paying for a statutory service that out-sources to another country.
"I am not against outsourcing per se but this does not sit well with me," adds the mole.
I'm also told the company's audit plan was nodded through a recent council committee without the Indian outsourcing being mentioned at all.
It's a funny old world.
