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<b>Audit News:</b> NAO blasts Home Office accounts. By Louise Birkett

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2nd Feb 2006
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In a withering report, the National Audit Office (NAO) has refused to sign off the Home Office's accounts.

The NAO says management failed to heed warnings, muddled figures and showed an inability to complete the basic task of tallying bank statements with records of cash payments and receipts.

The Home Office produced two sets of accounts , but one set said the Home Office overspent by £68 million while another said the Treasury owed it £112 million ' a difference of £180 million.

Gross adjustments of £946 million were made to correct the errors between the two sets of accounts but Sir John Bourn, head of the NAO, said that without further investigative work, which could not be undertaken because of the need to present the accounts to parliament, he could not reach an opinion on the accuracy of the department's accounts.

The NAO did not find any evidence of fraud but this appears to be down to luck ' the report says there were control weaknesses within key information technology applications including access to the system, inadequate segregation of duties, the creation of standing data and the ability to interrogate and monitor changes made. "These weaknesses made access to the database by unauthorised staff possible, exposing the Home Office to a greater risk of fraud and error," it said.

A new computer system was blamed for many of the failures but Sir John added that staff had not been trained how to use it properly and managers had ignored previous warnings of potential problems. That, coupled with an earlier reporting date, meant that the Home Office could not use data from its new accounting system effectively to produce a cogent set of accounts, he added.

The Home Office has taken measures to improve the situation, partly by increasing the number of qualified and experienced accountants in the team from three to eight.

Last month, Sir John Gieve, who was the top civil servant at the Home Office during the period the NAO's report covers, was made a deputy governor of the Bank of England and a member of the monetary policy committee.

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By AnonymousUser
03rd Feb 2006 16:20

The Europeanisation of Government
Not content with destroying the wealth creation potential of this country by pushing business further and further towards the unproductive European model, our Government is also trying to emulate Brussels where the auditors refuse to sign off the accounts there as well as here with the Home Office!

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