SPCB Written Question · S2W-05232 · Session 2
Whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) will make a detailed response to the report by the Auditor General, The 2002-03 Au…
The question
To ask the Presiding Officer whether the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) will make a detailed response to the report by the Auditor General, The 2002-03 Audit of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB), (SE/2003/346) and, in particular, (a) when the report was made public and by what means, (b) whether the SPCB will give details of the 290 items that were unreconciled which totalled some #5.3 million, (c) why properly authorised standing financial instructions set by the Principal Accountable Officer in agreement with the SPCB and its Advisory Audit Board are not yet in place, (d) why staff below Head of Finance level were able to write off debts and, if this practice has now been altered, whether a review of such debts has been, or will be, undertaken and whether the SPCB is satisfied that such debts should have been written off and (e) why the cash balance as at 31 March 2003 was #20 million and whether any financial loss either to the Parliament or to the Scottish Consolidated Fund may have arisen as a result of premature draw down of funds from the consolidated fund.
The answer
The Principal Accountable Officer will make a detailed response to the report by the Auditor General when he gives evidence to the Audit Committee.
In respect of the particular questions you raise:
(a) The SPCB received the report from the Auditor General on Friday 19 December 2003 and delivered it to Scottish ministers on the same day. The report was formally laid before Parliament by Scottish ministers on the next working day, Monday 22 December 2003, together with the SPCB’s 2002-03 Accounts. Both documents were published on the Parliament’s website on 23 December 2003.
(b) The Principal Accountable Officer will report to the Audit Committee on the progress by then in clearing the reconciling items that had not been fully resolved at the time of the audit.
(c) As Audit Scotland reported in its evidence to the Audit Committee on 6 January 2004 (Official Report, col. 266), the SPCB is a young and evolving organisation. Although it does not currently have a full set of formally approved standing financial instructions, it has various procedures that it inherited from previous arrangements and has also adopted various new procedures to meet the changes arising from new finance systems and other developments. As reported by the Auditor General to the Audit Committee, the SPCB is currently preparing a set of financial instructions for implementation in March 2004.
(d) Procedures for authorisation of losses, special payments and write offs have been in place since May 2000 and are based on the Scottish Public Finance Manual. These procedures specified that all such entries should be approved by the Finance Office, but did not specify particular levels. As reported by the Auditor General to the Audit Committee, we are reviewing these levels as part of the development of formally approved standing financial instructions. In practice, all significant entries covered by this procedure in 2002-03 were authorised at Head of Finance level. Most are simply the result of a financial housekeeping exercise to clear out unsubstantiated accounting entries from 2001-02 and prior years. The net impact of these entries was a credit of £30,000 and all the entries have been audited by Audit Scotland. The SPCB has now instructed that no such write offs take place without its authority.
(e) The cash balance as at 31 March 2003 of £20 million arose as a result of the draw down of cash from Treasury on 1 March 2003 to meet the forecast expenditure on the Holyrood project. Forecasts for the monthly drawdown of cash require to be prepared some two months beforehand and, in the event, some of the money was not required until April. No financial loss arose to any party as a result of this as the funds remain within the Office of the Paymaster General until they are actually spent. Cash balances since March have been much reduced.
In respect of the particular questions you raise:
(a) The SPCB received the report from the Auditor General on Friday 19 December 2003 and delivered it to Scottish ministers on the same day. The report was formally laid before Parliament by Scottish ministers on the next working day, Monday 22 December 2003, together with the SPCB’s 2002-03 Accounts. Both documents were published on the Parliament’s website on 23 December 2003.
(b) The Principal Accountable Officer will report to the Audit Committee on the progress by then in clearing the reconciling items that had not been fully resolved at the time of the audit.
(c) As Audit Scotland reported in its evidence to the Audit Committee on 6 January 2004 (Official Report, col. 266), the SPCB is a young and evolving organisation. Although it does not currently have a full set of formally approved standing financial instructions, it has various procedures that it inherited from previous arrangements and has also adopted various new procedures to meet the changes arising from new finance systems and other developments. As reported by the Auditor General to the Audit Committee, the SPCB is currently preparing a set of financial instructions for implementation in March 2004.
(d) Procedures for authorisation of losses, special payments and write offs have been in place since May 2000 and are based on the Scottish Public Finance Manual. These procedures specified that all such entries should be approved by the Finance Office, but did not specify particular levels. As reported by the Auditor General to the Audit Committee, we are reviewing these levels as part of the development of formally approved standing financial instructions. In practice, all significant entries covered by this procedure in 2002-03 were authorised at Head of Finance level. Most are simply the result of a financial housekeeping exercise to clear out unsubstantiated accounting entries from 2001-02 and prior years. The net impact of these entries was a credit of £30,000 and all the entries have been audited by Audit Scotland. The SPCB has now instructed that no such write offs take place without its authority.
(e) The cash balance as at 31 March 2003 of £20 million arose as a result of the draw down of cash from Treasury on 1 March 2003 to meet the forecast expenditure on the Holyrood project. Forecasts for the monthly drawdown of cash require to be prepared some two months beforehand and, in the event, some of the money was not required until April. No financial loss arose to any party as a result of this as the funds remain within the Office of the Paymaster General until they are actually spent. Cash balances since March have been much reduced.
In the Official Report
No contribution in the Official Report cites S2W-05232 by reference.