The View From….. Andrew Rothe ACCA
Finance Operations Manager, Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency
“We have a £180m annual income.”
I joined the Civil Service six years ago to work for the Vehicle and Operator Service Agency, part of the Department for Transport. It has since merged with the Driving Standards Agency to form the DVSA, the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. So there has been lots of change.
DVSA is a ‘Trading Fund’, which means its activities are funded by the services bought by our customers – so we are similar to a commercial business and different from many other government departments and agencies. My primary responsibilities relate to income from operator licensing, vehicle MOTs for HGVs & PSVs and enforcement.
I report directly to the financial control manager, who reports to the finance director. I have a highly motivated team who conscientiously help me reconcile monthly the £180 million plus annual income.
I am involved with two large projects. The Subject Matter Expert for Shared Services is an initiative involving the centralisation of some back room activities from different agencies into one department. The second project is the Information and Communications Technology Modernisation Programme, where four of our key front end systems are updated. We have to ensure all accounting activities comply with IAS and IFRS.
I deal with the external auditors – and with internal audit where we undertake tasks for them. This primarily involves processes, procedures and providing details of transactions randomly sampled from the more than 200,000 that go through our systems every month.
My employer has been very supportive of my training and qualifying. I have been given day release to attend college, time off for examinations and mentoring from my line manager. The knowledge from undertaking the ACCA qualification has helped tremendously with my work. I have one exam left to take and the hardest challenge has been juggling study with work and family.
Work/life balance is important to me. I relax with the family and I play squash and badminton twice a week, which recharges my batteries.