Source · National Audit Office

Accounting Officer assessments: improving decision-making and transparency over government’s major programmes

This report considers the extent to which AO assessments are supporting good decision-making in line with expected standards and providing transparency over significant spending decisions up to the end of 2021.

Published: 11 Jul 2022 Recommendations: 5 Type: Value for Money NAO confirmed: 3 Department: HM Treasury

Dept: HM Treasury nao.org.uk → PDF →

Recommendations

5 items

2 accepted 1 partially accepted 2 rejected 3 implemented

Recommendation 1

Addressee: HM Treasury · Source location: Page 7, 16

HM Treasury should enhance its support to accounting officers and departments by, for example, completing an annual review of the quality of AO assessments to help identify good practice, providing training and facilitating conversations across government on what ?good? looks like;

Response position: Partially accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 2

Addressee: HM Treasury · Source location: Page 8, 16

HM Treasury should as part of any wider governance review provide greater clarity on how AO assessments fit within the wider governance and accountability framework, including the IPA?s reviews of major programmes. This should also set out when AO assessments and published summaries are required for programmes that do not follow the traditional business case route

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q2 2023-24 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 3

Addressee: HM Treasury · Source location: Page 8, 17

HM Treasury should remind accounting officers of the need to fulfil their responsibility to publish summary AO assessments and ensure that these are easily accessible through its GOV.UK website to improve transparency.

Response position: Accepted

Delivery: Implemented · Q2 2023-24 · Confirmed by NAO

Recommendation 4

Addressee: HM Treasury · Source location: Page 7, 16

To maximise the value of AO assessments in supporting good-quality decision-making, accounting officers should consider sharing AO assessments with those parts of their organisation that need to understand departmental risk and spending (such as the investment committee) and the governance and scrutiny of those decisions (such as internal audit and the audit and risk committee)

Response position: Rejected

Delivery: No implementation status recorded

Recommendation 5

Addressee: HM Treasury · Source location: Page 7, 16

To maximise the value of AO assessments in supporting good-quality decision-making, accounting officers should: ? regularly identify those areas of the AO assessment that prove the most challenging to complete, and identify what additional support may be required for staff

Response position: Rejected

Delivery: No implementation status recorded