By Helen Mooney
30 October 2009
The Home Office has ‘come a long way’ since 2006 in improving its financial systems and processes, according to the Public Accounts Committee.
Chair Edward Leigh praised it for a ‘great improvement’ and said that things were ‘going in the right direction’.
He added: ‘The Home Office has come a long way since 2006 when its basic financial systems and processes were in disarray. Such has been its progress in improving its financial management that it is now being extolled by the Cabinet Office as a model of good progress in the civil service.’
In 2006, the then home secretary John Reid declared that the Home Office was ‘dysfunctional’ and needed to be radically overhauled.
The committee’s report, published on October 27, acknowledged that in the past three years the department had made ‘significant improvements to its financial management capacity, capability, processes and procedures’.
However, the committee warned that sound financial management had yet to be established at all levels in the department and in all its business activities.
The report found that the Home Office had strengthened its financial management by recruiting ‘capable, professionally qualified accounting staff’ and deploying them in main finance roles throughout its business units.
A Home Office spokeswoman told Public Finance the department was ‘very pleased’ the committee had recognised its significant improvements in financial management, adding: ‘We acknowledge some room for improvement remains.’
30 October 2009
The Home Office has ‘come a long way’ since 2006 in improving its financial systems and processes, according to the Public Accounts Committee.
Chair Edward Leigh praised it for a ‘great improvement’ and said that things were ‘going in the right direction’.
He added: ‘The Home Office has come a long way since 2006 when its basic financial systems and processes were in disarray. Such has been its progress in improving its financial management that it is now being extolled by the Cabinet Office as a model of good progress in the civil service.’
In 2006, the then home secretary John Reid declared that the Home Office was ‘dysfunctional’ and needed to be radically overhauled.
The committee’s report, published on October 27, acknowledged that in the past three years the department had made ‘significant improvements to its financial management capacity, capability, processes and procedures’.
However, the committee warned that sound financial management had yet to be established at all levels in the department and in all its business activities.
The report found that the Home Office had strengthened its financial management by recruiting ‘capable, professionally qualified accounting staff’ and deploying them in main finance roles throughout its business units.
A Home Office spokeswoman told Public Finance the department was ‘very pleased’ the committee had recognised its significant improvements in financial management, adding: ‘We acknowledge some room for improvement remains.’
