Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today reported to Parliament on the financial statements of the Exchange Equalisation Account (EEA), which holds the UK’s official reserves of gold and foreign currencies. The accounts for 1997/98 are the first to be published. Sir John’s opinion on the accounts was unqualified but in his … Read more
“No one under-estimates the scale of the Benefits Agency’s task in tackling fraud and error. Nevertheless the levels of both are unacceptably high. In my report I have drawn attention to the important initiatives the Agency have in place in this key area of their business but I also recognise that they face a significant challenge in seeking to achieve a real and lasting improvement.”
“In 1998-99 the Ministry of Defence once again failed to keep their spending within the limits set by Parliament. And the loss of public funds through abortive expenditure on IT projects is clearly a cause for concern. Although the Department have made some improvements, my Report shows that they need further to improve their financial management and controls over expenditure.”
The Scottish Executive and other Scottish public bodies have responded positively to a range of recommendations arising from value for money work on Scottish matters in the last two years, Sir John Bourn head of the National Audit Office reported to the Scottish Parliament today. Sir John’s report brings together the results of seven previously … Read more
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today reported to Parliament that he has qualified his opinions on the above accounts because the Fire Service College could not produce reliable costing information that would confirm whether it had set its fees and charges in accordance with the Treasury Minute which defined the College’s financial objectives.
“The advent of the Internet and World Wide Web challenges all departments to reconsider how they communicate with citizens and organise their business procedures. It offers the potential to achieve very significant improvements in the quality of their services and important financial savings”.
“more could be done to safeguard the value of properties. Better maintenance, higher occupancy and faster sales would help secure better prices when properties become surplus and are sold”.
The National Audit Office makes a number of recommendations including a need for the Agency to:
Sir John Bourn, the head of the National Audit Office, reported to the Scottish Parliament today that there is scope to improve the responsiveness of accident and emergency ambulance services in Scotland and the impact they have on the healthcare of patients. The Scottish Ambulance Service are responsible for ambulance services across Scotland. Their emergency … Read more
“The Office of Fair Trading and local authority trading standards services are putting a lot of effort into working together, but they must do more if they are to make “joined-up working” happen in practice and ensure consumers’ interests are protected. The OFT could help further this process by giving trading standards a stronger steer on what the OFT expect from them and what they can expect from the OFT in return.”
“Everyone involved in criminal justice agrees that the system cannot function effectively unless all the parties involved work closely together. For this to happen there must be the right structures in place to facilitate co-operation and the right information to enable the system to be managed. Millions of pounds could be saved by reducing the number of ineffective hearings and implementing our recommendations will go a long way to achieving this.”
