1 Nine reports from
the Comptroller and Auditor General published from July 2009 to
March 2010
1. In this report we endorse the conclusions and
recommendations of nine reports by the Comptroller and Auditor
General published between July 2009 and March 2010. The nine
reports are:
- Review of errors in Guaranteed
Minimum Pension Payments,
HC 878, Session 2008-09, Published 16 July 2009;
- Government cash management,
HC 546, Session 2008-09, Published 16 October 2009;
- Measuring Up: How good are the Government's
data systems for monitoring performance against Public Service
Agreements?, HC 465, Session 2008-09,
Published 21 October 2009;
- Complying with Regulation: Business Perceptions
Survey 2009, HC 1028, Session 2008-09,
Published 22 October 2009;
- Commercial skills for complex government projects,
HC 962, Session 2008-09, Published 6 November 2009;
- Independent Reviews of reported CSR07 Value
for Money savings, HC 86, Session 2009-10,
Published 16 December 2009;
- Department for Work and Pensions: Pension
Protection Fund, HC 293, Session 2009-10,
Published 5 February 2010;
- Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs: Reducing the impact of business waste through the Business
Resource Efficiency and Waste Programme,
HC 216, Session 2009-10, Published 5 March 2010;
- Reorganising central government,
HC 452, Session 2009-10, Published 18 March 2010;
2. Although we did not have the time to take evidence
on these reports, they represent the culmination of valuable data
collection and analysis by the National Audit Office supported
by extensive consultation with the Government departments and
delivery bodies that were the subjects of the work. The reports
are authoritative accounts of the activities they cover, and the
facts they contain have been researched by the National Audit
Office and agreed with Government.
3. So that the value of this work and the insights
it yields are not lost, we invite Her Majesty's Treasury and the
Government departments concerned to consider and respond formally
to the Comptroller and Auditor General's recommendations, which
are reproduced in Appendices 1 to 9. We propose that departments
first write to the Treasury setting out their response to the
recommendations and indicating what actions they propose to take.
We then propose that the Treasury forwards this correspondence
to us and to the Comptroller and Auditor General, indicating the
extent to which the Treasury endorses each department's response
and the commitments it makes, and what action the Treasury proposes
to take centrally to address problems that recur across government.
4. Once we and the Comptroller and Auditor General
have considered these responses, we will judge what further action,
if any, to take, including whether we should meet to take evidence
from departmental witnesses or the Treasury should we have concerns
that there are significant shortcomings in the response.
Conclusion
5. We commend and endorse the Comptroller and
Auditor General's conclusions and recommendations reproduced at
Appendices 1 to 9 of this report. We recommend that the Treasury
should coordinate a response from each of the Government departments
concerned setting out what actions they propose to take to address
the Comptroller and Auditor General's recommendations. The Treasury
should then write to us and to the Comptroller and Auditor General
within two months (by 6 June 2010), setting out the extent to
which it endorses the actions proposed by each department, and
what action the Treasury proposes to take centrally to address
problems that recur across government.
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