This tale falls squarely into the “You couldn’t make it up” category.  It only got limited coverage in the press, which is amazing (not at all in the Redtops, since there was no mention of Big Brother, tits, or hamsters.)  As usual with the media, you have to take it all with a pinch of salt, since they are not averse to letting a good story spoil the real facts, but there would appear to be at least a grain of truth in this one.  This will probably appeal to all you small businesses, struggling to get all the bits of paper into some sort of bottom line that the Revenue will believe.

It seems that the National Audit Office have declined to accept the annual accounts of the Home Office as being a true and fair view of their budget of £14 billion. Records of cash payments and receipts could not be reconciled with bank statements. Expert (sic!) accountants had to make adjustments of almost £1billion to correct one discrepancy!!  This brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “close enough for Government work” (If any of these “experts” from the Revenue turn up at your door, querying the £0.10 “plug” entry in your accounts to balance petty cash, maybe you should show them this). The accounts were 10 weeks late (Did anyone get fined? Was their credit rating suspended? Were any “directors” disbarred?  What do you think?) and contained “numerous errors and internal inconsistencies”

The Politicians, as usual, are huffing and puffing, and blaming almost anyone but themselves. Whatever happened to “The buck stops here”? In this case, the blame flows downhill onto the Civil Servants. Their story is that the problem was the new computer accounting system, presumably the one thrown away by the Child Support Agency, or the Ministry of Defence, or the NHS, or the Passport Agency or ……  this could go on and on and on!

The guy in charge of these accounts was the Permanent Secretary, Sir John Gieve.  He is no longer in this position.  Sacked, you might think, for gross incompetence? Not a bit of it. He was promoted, and is now Deputy Governor of the Bank of England!

Have a nice day!