Whole of Government Accounts summary due out next week

4 Jul 12
A summary of the Whole of Government Accounts for 2010/11 is due to be published next week and the full audited accounts in October, the Treasury official responsible revealed yesterday
By Nick Mann in Liverpool | 4 July 2012

A summary of the Whole of Government Accounts for 2010/11 is due to be published next week and the full audited accounts in October, the Treasury official responsible revealed yesterday.

Karen Sanderson, deputy director of the Treasury financial management and reporting group, told a CIPFA conference workshop that the latest WGA would follow a similar schedule to the 2009/10 accounts, the first published. These did not emerge in full audited form until 20 months after the end of the financial year.

But Sanderson said the process of preparing the accounts was ‘an evolution, not a revolution’. ‘Faster closing is very much on the agenda,’ she added.

The first WGA were qualified by the National Audit Office in November on five counts. Sanderson said the Treasury was focusing on removing these qualifications.

It was also looking to address potential future problems. The NAO’s view on the 2009/10 WGA took issue with the Treasury’s decision to exclude Network Rail from the government balance sheet. Sanderson said: ‘There could be other things that are caught by that in the future.’

In particular, she said there were issues with the education sector. ‘Academies are providing lots of problems at the moment and also voluntary-aided schools,’ she said. ‘I think there may be other issues that come around in this context.’

Action was also needed to address inconsistently applied accounting policies, she added. One of the NAO’s qualifications was made because different frameworks were used by the bodies whose accounts were consolidated in the final document.

> The Treasury’s Whole of Governments Accounts team was awarded the 2012 Sir Harry Page Merit Award for excellence in public finance.

CIPFA president Sir Tony Redmond said the team’s work provided a ‘step change in financial reporting’ in the UK public sector.

‘The judges’ comments included praise for the team having overcome technical and project management challenges to produce a very creditable set of accounts, as well as giving a true and fair view of the finances of UK government, something only a small handful of less complex countries have achieved,’ he added.Spacer

CIPFA logo

PF Jobsite logo

Did you enjoy this article?

AddToAny

Top