Whitehall FDs lack accounting pedigree
The Treasury has admitted that the four government departments that work most closely with financial information have finance chiefs with no accountancy qualifications.
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Hilary Douglas, FD at the Treasury, Alison French, FD at Customs & Excise, Peter Murphy and Stephen Jones, finance chiefs at the Office of National Statistics and the Inland Revenue, respectively, do not have any formal accountancy qualifications.
This surprising revelation was made by financial sectretary to the Treasuy, Ruth Kelly in response to a written question by Richard Bacon, Conservative MP for Norfolk South and a member of the influential Public Accounts Committee.
Despite the lack of qualifications, the Daily Telegraph reported a Treasury spokesman as saying: ‘Finance directors have the resources available to them to do what they should do.’