Letter to the Chairmen of the Foreign
Affairs Committee and the Public Accounts Committee from the Permanent
Under Secretary of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office
UPDATE ON
THE INVESTIGATION
OF AN
ACCOUNTS DISCREPANCY
ON THE
FCO RESOURCE ACCOUNTS
2007-08
In the FCO Resource Accounts 2007-08 at notes
32 Losses and Special Payments I included a statement that "In
addition to the above [details of three other losses], an accounts
discrepancy at an overseas Post in Afghanistan amounting to £750,000
is under investigation". You will wish to be aware that we
have now completed our investigation of this matter and the discrepancy
has been reduced to £27,369 (US$48,352 converted to GBP at
our Corporate Rate of Exchange for September 2008). The discrepancy
means that £27,369 more has been spent than we have accounting
records for. No fraud was identified in the investigation of this
issue. This discrepancy appears to be purely an accounting/record
keeping issue, arising from the exceptional conditions in which
officials were operating in the early days of our presence in
Lashkar Gah.
The correct accounting procedures are now in
place. The NAO has also been advised of the outcome of this investigation
as has the FCO's Audit & Risk Committee.
Sir Peter Ricketts
15 October 2008
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