A fresh campaign to find a qualified finance director is to be launched by the Ministry of Defence, as the government unveiled a further deadline for government to up its finance skills.

With a budget of £35bn, the MoD controls the largest element of government spending not currently managed by a qualified FD a full set of Whitehall.

Repeated deadlines to hire finance heads with accounting qualifications have been missed, with Treasury permanent secretary Nicholas Macpherson telling the Public Accounts Committee that he hoped to achieve it by the end of the year.

There is also to be a push to achieve more permanent secretaries with accounting qualifications working for government. An NAO report recently suggested there were none.

Current FD Trevor Woolley’s days appear to be numbered as head of the MOD’s finance function.

The department’s permanent secretary Bill Jeffrey wrote to senior staff recently to outline plans to recruit a new FD. Jeffrey said he hoped to fill the post ‘well before the end of the year’.

Macpherson confirmed the move at the PAC meeting on Monday. The job is to be advertised as an open competition, meaning figures from outside Whitehall will be invited to apply ­ but it is unclear how much interest there will be.

‘It was advertised [before] but no one came forward from the private sector. I’m sure [the selection panel] will succeed because it’s a challenging and interesting job,’ Macpherson said.

A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: ‘The MoD employs many qualified accountants in the FD’s area and Woolley routinely consults them in the course of his work.’

The MoD refused to comment on the internal memo.