MoJ criticised for lax financial controls

Multitude of IT systems makes it hard for MoJ to work out what it spends

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has been strongly rebuked for the inadequacy of its financial management processes and for being the "only major government department to deliver its 2009-10 accounts late".

The inadequacy of the financial management programmes has resulted in £1.5bn in legal fines going unpaid.

The newly-published Public Accounts Committee report into financial management at the MoJ was critical of the department's inability to conduct in-depth analyses of its costs across all its business areas.

Last year, the National Audit Office complained that the MoJ's multiple data systems had impaired its ability to monitor spending. It has recommended that a strategy be established to address this before the end of the year.

But as the latest PAC report highlights, that strategy is far from being enacted.

"The Ministry has a range of financial management processes in place but lacks a consistent approach across its business, and to date it has not integrated financial management into its policy and operational workings," the report stated.

That has resulted in its inability to monitor how much money was spent on fundamental budget items, such as staff.

"It is not good enough that by December 2010, the Ministry expects to have information on only 61 per cent of its staff costs in its largest agency, with the remaining 39 per cent due by December 2011."

The PAC report also reveals that the amount of legal fines that have gone uncollected now tops £1.5bn, although some of these fines come from complex cases where assets reside overseas.

The MoJ plans to migrate to a single HR, finance and procurement system, which it believes will provide better management information. But that is not expected to be complete before March 2013.