Whitehall 'lacks finance chiefs'

No permanent secretaries have a professional finance qualification

Government departments are short of the financial expertise needed to manage their multi-million pound budgets effectively, a spending watchdog says.

The National Audit Office said not one permanent secretary - the top civil servant in each department - had a professional finance qualification.

And fewer than half usually provided ministers with a full analysis of their policy proposals, it said.

The government said 96% of departments now had qualified finance directors.

Spending by central government is expected to reach £678bn by 2010/11, but the NAO said six government departments or bodies did not even have a professionally qualified finance director on their main board.

They include the Ministry of Defence, which has a budget of £40bn, the Department for International Development, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Office of Fair Trading, the NAO said.

It also found that only 40% of all departments "invariably" provide ministers and senior officials with a breakdown of the financial implications of policy proposals.

'Transformation'

Edward Leigh, the Conservative chairman of the Commons public accounts committee - which oversees the NAO - said: "I have to wonder if financial management is being taken as seriously as it should be.

"There has been an improvement in how departments manage their financial resources, but with public finances as they are, things are going to get much tougher."

A spokesman for the Treasury said: "There has been a major transformation in qualified finance directors within a very short period of time - 96% of departments currently have one - which demonstrates a remarkable turnaround in professionalism."

He added: "Many directors hold a range of other key professional qualifications relevant to their department."