The National Audit
Office has painted another bleak picture of the financial controls within
the Department for Work & Pensions after qualifying its 2005/2006 accounts
for the 17th time.
Its report into the government department found £2.7bn in losses that came
about due to fraud and error in 2005-06.
The loss represents 2.2% of the DWP’s total expenditure of £124.2bn over the
period.
Despite the qualification, NAO chief
Sir John
Bourn said ‘real progress’ had been made towards removing or tackling the
qualifications that have been made to the department’s account in recent years.
‘It is always encouraging to see such progress, but the scale of the
challenge ahead remains considerable,’ he said.
Further reading:
NAO forced to qualify Commons
accounts