Recommendation 14

We have previously recommended that the Department should improve its financial skills and asked what progress had been made.34 The Department had not increased the number of professionally qualified finance staff, and said it was unhappy that the proportion of finance staff with a professional qualification remained at 41%, the same as last year.35 The Army, Navy and Royal Air Force also had staff shortages in their finance sections, with one third of Equipment Plan-related posts vacant. The Department said it is seeking to train and recruit staff with finance qualifications but acknowledged that these plans were not moving fast enough. Despite not having enough staff with a professional finance qualification, the Department told us that it still had confidence in its cost forecasts.36