10 March 2000
During a Commons committee hearing on March 7, Treasury officials admitted that 'new concerns' about the first dry-run resource accounts of the two departments meant they failed to meet the February deadline for final audit.
The CPS and the Serious Fraud Office are the only departments, out of 46, to miss the target – which had already been extended from last autumn. The Ministry of Defence is being treated as a special case and is currently under review. According to a Treasury memo, the CPS has failed to compile adequate information on its accruals accounts after difficulties employing skilled finance personnel.
The concerns surrounding the Serious Fraud Office are less clear, although the National Audit Office refused to approve its appropriation accounts this year after it failed to use the correct accounting method for VAT on contracted services.
The NAO, which must assess all dry-run accounts before departments can move to the next stage of introducing resource accounting, is attempting to resolve the difficulties with the Treasury.
But the Treasury is experiencing its own delays after questions over whether resource accounting can apply to its holdings in the International Monetary Fund.
Professor Andrew Likierman, chief accountancy adviser at the Treasury, said the delays were unlikely to hold up the full introduction of resource accounting in 2001/02, but a clearer picture of progress was expected after May 2000 when departments must produce 'shadow' resource estimates.
Vernon Sore, policy and technical director at CIPFA, warned the committee that the lack of trained accountants in central government could undermine the introduction of resource accounting.
PFmar2000