MPs slam ‘astonishing failures’ at Home Office
The Home Office is guilty of “astonishing failures” in managing its accounts and in carrying out fundamental duties, MPs warn today.
In a highly critical report, the public accounts committee says financial failures and the way the department handled the foreign prisoners scandal represented a “severe indictment of the way in which the Home Office has been run”.
“The Home Office has a substantial back catalogue of examples of poor management and stumbling projects, but it has crowned it with two astonishing failures,” said Conservative committee chairman Edward Leigh.
These included failing to present properly audited accounts to parliament and failing to protect the public by releasing from prison a large number of foreign nationals without assessing them for deportation first, he said.
Auditor general John Bourn was forced to issue qualified accounts for the Home Office in March, when he warned it appeared to have a “casual disregard for taxpayers’ money”. The department had a budget of about £13.5 billion last year.
Meanwhile, the foreign prisoner scandal led to Charles Clarke’s sacking as home secretary – his successor has now pledged to implement widespread reform of the department, and this week announced a package of measures to improve its functions.
Responding to today’s report, immigration minister Liam Byrne said he took “very seriously” the problems with the Home Office accounts for last year, although insisted no cash had gone missing and no evidence of fraudulent payments had been found.
The government had also “made it quite clear that it was not acceptable” that a number of foreign prisoners had been released without being considered for deportation, he continued, and had taken “urgent action” to address the problem.
Mr Byrne added: “Since the public accounts committee held its evidence sessions the Home Office has set out an extensive plan of action to reduce old fashioned ways of working.”
However, Richard Bacon, a Conservative member of the committee, warned that the failures in accounting suggested the Home Office “seemed not to understand the vital importance” of getting its books in order.
“There is no assurance that all expenditure incurred during the year was in line with what parliament authorised and financial information provided by the Home Office is unreliable,” he said.
“These are the most basic failures of financial stewardship and control. It is a national disgrace.”
