Spending watchdog ‘disclaims’ College of Policing 2023/24 accounts over poor financial management

As well as providing late and incomplete annual report and financial statements to the National Audit Office (NAO) – eight months after the year end – the college also failed to meet the statutory deadline for sending its accounts to Companies House.

The Comptroller and Auditor General said he has ‘disclaimed’ his audit opinion on the college’s 2023/24 financial statements as he was “unable to obtain sufficient, and appropriate evidence upon which to form an opinion”.

The lack of evidence was due to the college failing to properly manage a transition to new accounting and payroll systems, making the college vulnerable to the risk of unauthorised transactions, data breaches and misuse of sensitive information.

In October 2023, the College of Policing transferred its accounting records to the Oracle-based Metis system used by the Home Office and also outsourced most of its payroll functions to Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL) – a contractor used by other government departments and public bodies.

The NAO’s audit found the college went live with the new systems despite known problems being unresolved and without a line-by-line reconciliation of the data.

The college could not provide adequate evidence to support many transactions reflected in its accounting systems, the Comptroller and Auditor General said. When audit fieldwork was concluded in February this year the college had been unable to provide the NAO with evidence required to substantiate 56 per cent of the audit sample.

The NAO noted that the college has now strengthened its finance team and brought VAT reconciliations and returns up to date and has shared “a detailed recovery plan” with it to ensure it is able to fully substantiate its 2024/25 financial statements.

Responding the NAO’s assessment of its annual accounts, Sir Andy Marsh, College of Policing chief executive officer, said: “In 2023 the college implemented a replacement public sector finance and HR system which presented a range of challenges for us to accurately migrate data and introduce new procedures and processes while the change-over was happening.

“Regrettably it resulted in late accounts being filed and an overspend in budget.

“I take our responsibility for public money very seriously. The College of Policing has not faced an issue of this kind with auditors since its inception, and to prevent this happening again I have overseen significant changes to our finance operation, including the strengthening of my executive team. An additional non-executive director, who is a former audit partner at KPMG, has been co-opted to join the college board.

“The new financial system has now been fully implemented and is working well. I am grateful to the NAO and Home Office for their support and can reassure the public that our next accounts will be filed correctly.”