Resource accounts tested in Balkans

Military operations in Kosovo are being studied to see how the government’s new resource accounting and budgeting system will operate also when it goes live in 2001.

While accountants are not deployed alongside service personnel in the Balkans, financial planning operates from UK headquarters.

But if military commitments are expanded, the Ministry of Defence has not ruled out sending accountants to the region to track expenditure.

The National Audit Office is monitoring the situation.

As Whitehall prepares to shift to commercial accounting practice, officials continue to monitor and report in the cash basis system.

Financial information gathered during NATO’s actions against Serbian targets will aid future planning. ‘It is a useful exercise for future actions and is being treated as such,’ said a defence spokesperson.

Any hardware lost in the Balkans would be replaced under the cash system on a like-for-like basis as it was after the Falklands and Gulf wars.

Resource accounting introduces depreciation and stock consumption measures.