National Audit Office rejects Treasury accounts

Not that you would know it if you relied on the BBC for your news but a major story broke today. The Times reports that:

"Britain’s spending watchdog is refusing to approve the Treasury’s accounts, compounding a miserable year for Alistair Darling, the Chancellor of the Exchequer....

Mr Darling is fighting a bruising battle with the National Audit Office (NAO), which is unhappy at the way that the nationalisation of Northern Rock is being treated in the Treasury’s books. The annual report from No 11 was published yesterday but, in a highly unusual departure from normal procedure, without the department’s resource accounts.

A Treasury spokesman confirmed the delay but denied that the spending watchdog had threatened to qualify its accounts. The books must be published before the parliamentary recess in three weeks’ time....

Treasury officials now face questions from MPs over the delay. Michael Fallon, the chairman of the Treasury Scrutiny Committee, said: “This is a fresh humiliation for Alistair Darling. He has lost control over public finances. Now it looks as if he can’t get his department’s books past the auditors.”"

It looks as though this Labour government caused economic crash could be worse than the one that brought the Margaret Thatcher lead Conservative party into power in 1979. Once again the voting public have had to learn the hard way that Labour governments always end in economic disaster.