The National Audit Office has disclaimed the Whole of Government Accounts for the time ever, following backlogs in audits.
This comes in the 14th year of the publication of the WGA, which is a unique product thanks to it being the only consolidated set of public sector accounts to bring a number of public bodies and government-owned corporations together.
More than 10,000 public bodies, ranging from central government departments to academy schools and devolved administrations, as well as local authority accounts fall into the WGA, and backlogs in audits of England’s 426 authorities have led to this judgement. This comes as the Head of the NAO (also the Comptroller and Auditor General) says that appropriate evidence to forma an opinion was unobtainable.
According to the NAO, only 43 of the local authorities in England submitted reliable data to the WGA, with 187 not submitting any data at all. Alongside this, 196 authorities submitted information that has not been audited.
National Audit Office Head Gareth Davies said:
“It is clearly not acceptable that delays in audited accounts for English local authorities have made it impossible for me to provide assurance on the Whole of Government Accounts for 2022-23. It is essential that the steps being taken by Government to restore timely and robust local authority audited accounts are effective.”
Currently, the government is working to address the backlog relating to audited accounts for local authorities, with this including the introduction of fixed dates by which audits or the year must be completed, however this is not likely to remove the disclaimer on the WGA to be removed. This work might, however, offer a medium-to-long term solution to the challenge.
The importance of the WGA cannot be overstated, as it is critical in managing and scrutinising public spending, bringing together all assets in the public sector, as well as liabilities, income, and expenditure. This ensures that long term costs are visible to parliamentarians and policy makers.
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