A British financial adviser has suggested that the U.K.’s Financial Services Authority should be audited like any other public agency. “I would be far happier in the knowledge that the [National Audit Office] was conducting the audit of the FSA as I am concerned at the level of fees charged and the lack of accountability,” Simon Mansell of IFA Temple Bar wrote in a letter to the FSA’s Graeme Ashley-Fenn, director of the contact, revenue and information division. Mansell is not alone in his call for accountability, as it has been discovered through freedom of information requests, for example, that the FSA has expanded its staff by more than 70% in the past two years. In addition, critics want to know how the £43.7 million ($80.4 million) in fines the regulator collected has been used. In response, the FSA says it is a private company “directly financed by the industry,” which implements corporate auditing procedures, “has no financial relationship with the Government or Parliament and is not to be regarded as acting on behalf of the Crown.” You could have fooled Mansell, who pointed to the government-like description of the FSA, which includes a number of official-sounding departments, such as Treasury and HM Revenue & Customs.