Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 21
21
Previously the Treasury has expressed dissatisfaction at the level of expenditure across all types of...
Conclusion
Previously the Treasury has expressed dissatisfaction at the level of expenditure across all types of government spending that is classified as miscellaneous or other by WGA bodies, as it prevents the WGA providing more granular information. The Treasury stated that the implementation of the new OSCAR II IT system should help improve the quality of the information disclosed.44 To further improve the quality of information about what costs Departments have incurred, the Treasury’s Government Finance Function is planning to bring in a standard chart of accounts which it believes will remove manual work in Departments and provide more granular data.45 However, the introduction of a standard chart of accounts is a time-intensive and costly task, which would need to be timed with when Departments were already changing systems and the Treasury also need to consider interactions with shared service centres. This aspiration aligns with other work already undertaken in the Government Finance Function around converging other processes, such as expense claims.46 39 Letter to Sir Tom Scholar, September 2019 40 Public Accounts Committee, Seventy-Fourth Report of Session 2017–19, para 3 41 WGA 2018–19, p 12; National Audit Office, The cost of EU Exit preparations, HC 102, March 2020 42 Q 84 43 Qq 89, 92 44 Public Accounts Committee, Seventy-Fourth Report of Session 2017–19, para 9 45 Q 93 46 Qq 94, 95 14 Whole of Government Accounts 2018–19 Risks to quality
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
5.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Target implementation date: Autumn 2021 5.2 The Government Finance Function is developing a performance framework to measure progress against the strategic deliverables it set out in its 2019 strategy and to drive enhanced insight across central government. The function will begin reporting in April 2021 and will use the performance framework to measure the overall impact of the function across the core finance activities set out in the Government Finance Standard. The convergence of finance processes and data standards to improve the comparability of data across departments is integral to this, enabling greater consistency and comparability of finance information. Additionally, minimum standards for board pack management information have been agreed by the Finance Leadership Group and are in the process of being embedded by departments, with a sub-set of early adopters due to implement in April 2021. HM Treasury is also piloting certified data analytics training in partnership with the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) to enhance data analytical and visualisation skills. 5.3 A full review of the Government Finance Function’s progress against the objectives set out in the 2019-2023 Government Finance Function Strategy is presented in the Function’s Annual Review 2020. WGA 2019-20 will include a summary that will allow the public and Parliament a snapshot of the work of the Government Finance Function. 5.4 Consistent reporting of cross government spending remains a significant challenge, with consistent definitions, treatment of opportunity costs or allocations of staff costs to projects as barriers to consistent reporting of costs. However, the implementation of OSCAR 2 allows for more efficient gathering of data, as well as the potential for comparing data across organisations to generate insight. The convergence of finance data, technology and processes should allow for more comparability. 5.5 HM Treasury has also set out additional reporting requirements on EU Exit and COVID-19 for departmental Annual Reports and Accounts (ARA), as outlined to the Committee in the Chief Secretary’s letter of 3 December 2020. The WGA 2019-20 performance report will include estimated expenditures on EU Exit and COVID-19, using the best available information, including departmental ARA as they become available.