Resource and Accounts Bill will miss large sections of the public sector
Efforts to introduce resource accounting to government departments will fail to cover a significant proportion of public sector accounts, according to the Tory party.
The comments reinforce claims by the Commons Public Accounts Committee that the Bill, which will introduce commercial accounting practices to government departments, is a ‘missed opportunity’.
The Tories also claimed the Bill would allow the Government to continue with ‘creative accounting’.
Deficiencies in the Bill would need to be remedied with the creation of a National Accounts Commission which would set Statements of National Practice to parallel Statements of Standard Accounting Practice already used in the private sector.
Launching a scathing attack on the Bill, Oliver Letwin, shadow financial secretary for the Treasury, said: ‘Instead of definitions and clarity and independently determined standards, it offers only discretion for the Treasury to determine everything.’
The Tories claim the Bill does not cover income from tax and duties and will therefore not prevent attempts to alter public expenditure and income by reclassifying account items.
MPs raise constitutional fears over Resource Accounting Bill