Whole of government accounts 2009-10: sixty-seventh report of session 2010-12, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidenceIn November 2011, HM Treasury published the first audited Whole of Government Accounts (WGA), covering the year 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2010 (HC 1601, ISBN 9780102975192). The Committee welcomes this major step forward in improving transparency and accountability and highlights some of the information it contains: at 31 March 2010 the government's public service pensions liability was around £1,132 billion; the present value of its future commitments under PFI schemes was £131.5 billion; the government wrote off £10.9 billion in unpaid taxes and expected to have to pay £15.7 billion for outstanding clinical negligence claims; cost of future nuclear decommissioning (£56.7 billion); the need for stronger accountability systems to secure effective responsibility for cost and value for money at local levels - academies, Free Schools, Foundation Trusts and GP consortia. But the WGA will only serve its purpose- showing what the government owns, owes, spends and receives - if it is timely and robust. The figures in the first audited WGA are too dated because Treasury took 20 months to prepare and publish the report. Treasury must address the issues that led the Comptroller and Auditor General to qualify his audit opinion on the WGA 2009-10. A key issue is Treasury's decision to deviate from accounting standards, by omitting Network Rail, the publicly owned banks, and various other government-controlled or owned bodies from the WGA. The Committee sets out a set of principles that future accounts should follow. |
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2.2 billion 2011 HM Treasury 31 March Academies accounting officer accounting standards Amyas Morse Andrew Hudson areas Austin Mitchell Bacon balance sheet bond yields budget Chair Comptroller and Auditor consolidated corporate bond rate cost debt December 2011 HM Department of Health discount rate document ensure expenditure Foundation Trusts funded gilt rates going Government Accounts 2009-10 Hillier Humber bridge ICAEW IFRS included investment issue James Wharton Joseph Johnson Karen Sanderson Kilmarnock long-term look Matthew Hancock Meg Hillier National Audit Office National Statistics Network Rail NHS Litigation Authority Northern Rock Nuclear Decommissioning Authority Office for National organisations Parliament pension liabilities present value Private Finance Private Finance Initiatives private sector programme public finances public sector pensions public service pensions qualified responsible risk Sellafield Sir Nicholas Macpherson spending Stephen Barclay taxpayer thing transparency Treasury's value for money Whole of Government