Accounting & Business
Accounting news: Accounting & Business
UK news
EU bears down on audit firms
The European Commission is reported to be preparing far reaching proposals for the reform of the statutory audit function. This is expected to include the separation of audit and consultancy practices and mandated audit rotation. ACCA said it would not comment on the likely proposals until they [...]
TIF to follow PFI in battle of acronyms: Accounting & Business
Gordon Brown’s favoured mechanism for renewing the UK’s aging infrastructure has become as unpopular as the former Prime Minister himself. Two recent House of Commons’ Select Committee reports have been coruscating in their criticisms of the Private Finance Initiative – to the extent that it now seems inevitable that PFI will be fundamentally reformed, [...]
Clear Line of Sight: Accounting & Business
Achieving proper accountability for the spending of public money is only possible if there is a commitment to do this, backed by an effective mechanism. Yet there have been serious problems in the way that Parliament holds government to account for how public money is spent.
Both the Hansard Society – a body which tries [...]
The view from: Anita Brooks: Accounting & Business
Volunteering abroad: Anita Brook recently volunteered in Malawi. She is principal of Accounts Assist, an ACCA firm based in Silverstone, Northamptonshire and is both a Bedford, Luton, Northampton Panel Member and a member of the ACCA Practitioners’ Network Panel.
Q. What is your involvement in Accounting for International Development?
A. AFID is a charity that sends [...]
The view from: Amyas Morse: Accounting & Business
What are your main challenges?
Making sure that government understands the relevance of good cost and management information and financial management to the successful delivery of policies.
Do you believe the fiscal environment can and will make the NAO more influential?
The fiscal environment can and should increase the focus on efficiency and effectiveness in the use [...]
The view from: Karen Sanderson: Accounting & Business
The view from: The Treasury
Karen Sanderson is in charge of Government Estimates, Accounts & Reporting – GEAR.
Q. What is your major work challenge?
Preparing for the publication of Whole of Government Accounts, which is an account for the UK public sector prepared using EU adopted IFRS as adapted and interpreted for the public sector, including [...]
The view from: David Walker: Accounting & Business
Accounting & Business profile
David Walker
Former director of communications, Audit Commission
Why did you leave the Audit Commission?
The Commission was seized with deep anxiety about its future and its communications activities were reducing hugely. My job was disappearing. There were issues that I wanted to have a public voice on, which I [...]
Big Society - Big Con?: Accounting & Business
Lord Nat Wei was hardly the best known member of the Government. Yet his resignation as ‘Big Society’ advisor is a damaging blow to David Cameron. The Prime Minister’s difficulties in getting the Big Society initiative accepted – and even more challenging, understood – do not merely continue, but may actually be escalating.
Two days [...]
Opening public services: Accounting & Business
Much was expected of the Open Public Services White Paper, not least because it had been delayed repeatedly and was six months behind schedule when eventually published in July. Political dynamite had been predicted.
Yet the white paper drew barely any comment in the national media. If there had been political rows behind the [...]
The view from: Susan Anderson: Accounting & Business
The view from: Susan Anderson, director, public services and skills, CBI.
Q. What savings can be achieved through appropriate public service reform?
With such a large budget deficit to tackle, driving through public service reform to deliver savings has never been more important. The CBI has long argued that significant savings can be made from reforming the [...]
