By matt o'toole - 21st May 2009
Its financial management is stronger, and its accounts are being kept in better order and are now being submitted to Parliament in a timely fashion.
Edward Leigh MP
Financial management has significantly improved at the Home Office, the public spending watchdog has found.
A National Audit Office (NAO) report said the department had come a long way since 2006, when it was criticised by both the NAO and Commons public accounts committee for failing to produce adequate accounts.
Among the reasons for the improvement was the recruitment of more qualified financial staff into senior roles, which led to “better financial planning and decision making”.
Public accounts committee chairman Edward Leigh welcomed the findings of the report, noting that just three years ago Home Office accounts “were in such disarray that the comptroller and auditor general could not even give an opinion on them”.
“While it may not be possible to say everything in the Home Office is now as it should be, the department has certainly made steady progress to improve its bookkeeping,” Leigh said.
“Its financial management is stronger, and its accounts are being kept in better order and are now being submitted to Parliament in a timely fashion.”
National Audit Office chairman Tim Burr congratulated the department, which he described as “much needed”, but called for more work on reducing underspend at the department.
In the five years to March 2008, underspend on capital projects at the Home Office reached £725m – with the Treasury only allowing the department to access £292m of these unspent funds.
The NAO called on the department to improve management of capital spending in the years to come.
Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd