Recommendation 28

An accounting officer assessment (AO assessment) is an important mechanism to help hold government to account for how it spends public money, whilst also providing a framework for accounting officers to show how their decisions on major programmes align with expected standards. AO assessments have been a key part of the accountability framework for many years, and we have continually advocated for their use to support high quality decision making and enhance transparency across Whitehall. We have seen the value of accounting officer assessment when scrutinising previous government programmes. AO assessments can help accounting officers in several ways – they support decision making about whether a project or programme should go ahead, or whether a ministerial direction is required before doing so. They can also help accounting officers consider a programme’s political context alongside practical implementation and act as ‘corporate memory’ and ‘audit trail’ for earlier decisions.56