Finance

Public Accounts Committee (PAC) chair Margaret Hodge yesterday welcomed the publication of the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA), calling them a “major step forward in improving transparency and accountability.”

Finance skills should be central to the civil service reforms now being developed by head of the civil service Sir Bob Kerslake, the head of the government finance profession has said. Speaking in a CSW interview, Department of Health finance chief Richard Douglas said: “I’m hoping and expecting that Bob Kerslake will take [finance skills] forward as a key plank of civil service reform.”

National Audit Office chief Amyas Morse has raised concerns about the quality of data departments will receive under new systems designed to ensure accountability in devolved service provision.

All departments, agencies and non-departmental bodies will have to commission private companies to conduct ‘spend-recovery’ accounts in search of fraudulent or mistaken payments, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude announced on Monday at the launch of the government’s Fraud and Error Strategy.

Treasury chief secretary Danny Alexander has ordered a review into the salary arrangements for “all senior consultancy appointments” after the revelation Ed Lester, chief executive at the Student Loans Company (SLC), was paid through a consultancy firm in order to reduce tax on his salary package.