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Courts are owed more than £1.3bn in uncollected financial penalties, a report has revealed.
The National Audit Office (NAO) found the outstanding sum for England and Wales has jumped from £920m three years, a rise of nearly 50 per cent.
It said the financial situation at the Ministry of Justice "falls short of established best practice".
The watchdog revealed that there are three major areas in which the financial management at the Ministry of Justice falls short.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO said the department "does not have a consistent financial management approach, lacks a full understanding of the costs of its operational activities and policies and has yet to integrate its financial systems and processes".
According to the report, the delivery mechanisms which the department uses are complex, resulting in "differing financial management approaches in its arm's length bodies".
Currently around half of the ministry's £10.1bn primary activities budget goes towards the National Offender Management programme.
Morse called on the department to overhaul its system within the next four months in order to improve best practices with regards to financial management.
"Without improvements, the ministry will not be able to make informed decisions on relative operational performance, affecting its ability to deliver the sustainable efficiencies needed in the current constrained spending environment," he said.
"The ministry has yet to produce a clear timetable for the delivery of its financial management improvement initiatives to achieve best practice levels in financial management."
Of the £1.33bn in unpaid fines and other orders during 2008/09, officials only deemed £455m to be fully recoverable - just over one third of the total.
It blamed this on the increased use of Deduction from Benefit Orders for offenders.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd