Accounting watchdog ‘disclaims’ School of Policing monetary accounts after severe IT failures
The federal government’s accounting watchdog has refused to endorse the audited accounts of the School of Policing after severe failures in a mission to exchange its HR and accounting methods left the policing organisation unable to correctly handle its funds.
The Nationwide Audit Workplace (NAO) discovered that the School of Policing, which promotes policing excellence throughout police forces within the UK, bumped into issues when it “went stay” with new accounting and payroll methods with out resolving “recognized issues” with the mission.
The School of Policing – which has a workers of 600 individuals, together with officers on secondment – did not correctly handle the change from its SAP-based accounting system to the House Workplace’s Oracle-based Metis accounting system and a brand new payroll supplier, the NAO reported this week.
Inaccurate data within the school’s monetary methods following the change led to an overspend of £1.3m in opposition to House Workplace funds, the late and incomplete supply of its annual report and statements to the NAO, and the failure of the faculty to fulfill the statutory deadline for submitting accounts with Firms Home.
The faculty didn’t have visibility or oversight of customers who had entry to Metis, making a threat of unauthorised entry to delicate system information, potential information breaches and vulnerabilities.
The NAO’s comptroller and auditor normal, Gareth Davies, this week “disclaimed” the watchdog’s audit opinion on its 2023-2024 monetary statements after being unable to “acquire adequate and acceptable proof on which to type an opinion”.
By the point the NAO completed its audit work in February this yr, the faculty had been unable to supply the NAO with the proof required to substantiate 56% of the audit pattern.
Metis mission
The failures observe the School of Policing’s transfer to affix the House Workplace’s Metis mission, which goals to maneuver authorities back-office companies to Oracle Cloud in a programme to chop prices and make it simpler for presidency departments to share information.
The School of Policing moved current SAP IT methods to the House Workplace’s Oracle-based Metis cloud service in October 2023, and on the identical day transferred its payroll methods from CGI UK IT Restricted to a brand new provider, Shared Companies Related Restricted (SSCL).
Nonetheless, in accordance with the NAO, the faculty did not verify on a “line by line” foundation that the transactions on the SAP methods had been precisely and utterly transferred to Metis.
The School of Policing’s finance staff was unable to provide correct mixture figures of monetary transactions throughout its new and former IT system.
By the tip of the yr, there have been “vital considerations” in regards to the integrity of the faculty’s monetary data, which contributed to an overspend of £1.3m.
The issues had been exacerbated by the dearth of individuals with the best technical and monetary abilities. The faculty relied on a single member of workers – who took an prolonged go away of absence – for its information of its SAP accounting system, and the board member overseeing the accounting staff was not a certified accountant.
“Offering assurance on the info migrated throughout the 2 methods was extremely complicated and time-consuming,” the School of Policing said in its annual report. “The NAO’s IT audit specialists have additionally discovered there have been vital governance and management weaknesses arising from the adoption of Metis itself, which affected the integrity of the faculty’s monetary information.”
School unable to entry information from provider
The School of Policing revealed in its accounts that as a result of Metis is an outsourced service shared with different authorities departments, it was unable to entry a “vital quantity of data” required for its 2023-24 monetary audit.
NAO auditors found that the House Workplace’s contract with SSCL didn’t require the service supplier handy the School of Policing the knowledge it wanted for the audit. That led to vital delays whereas the House Workplace negotiated a “request for change” to the contract.
Auditors needed to wait 4 months to be equipped with payroll information from SSCL, which was solely delivered after the School of Policing made a proper request to the House Workplace for help to expedite the method.
The scenario was exacerbated by a scarcity of sources within the school’s small finance staff, together with vacancies in key posts, and quite a lot of individuals being absent due to illness through the audit interval.
Davies stated in his audit assertion that managers on the School of Policing had been unable to supply “acceptable proof” to achieve conclusions on the accuracy of transactions earlier than they accredited its monetary statements for publication.
These included workers prices of £52.8m, the place the payroll perform had been outsourced to SSCL, expenditure of £32m, and reported money and money equivalents of £4m.
Modifications to the finance staff
Andy Marsh, School of Policing CEO, stated in a press release he had made vital modifications to the finance staff, together with an extra non-executive director and former audit companion to affix the faculty board.
“In 2023, the faculty applied a substitute public sector finance and HR system, which introduced a spread of challenges for us to precisely migrate information and introduce new procedures and processes whereas the changeover was occurring,” he stated. “Regrettably, it resulted in late accounts being filed and an overspend in funds.
“The brand new monetary system has now been absolutely applied and is working nicely,” stated Marsh, including that he may “reassure the general public that our subsequent accounts will probably be filed appropriately”.
Nonetheless, in its annual report, the faculty stated it expects the opening balances of 2024-25 monetary accounts to be topic to a certified audit – through which an auditor expresses doubts about elements of the monetary statements – as they’d not been verified.
It stated it could work in direction of a totally unqualified audit opinion for its 2025-26 accounts.
Timeline of occasions
1 October 2023
School of Policing migrates from its SAP accounting system to the Oracle-based Metis accounting system utilized by the House Workplace.
The faculty transfers most of its payroll features to SSCL, a contractor utilized by the federal government. Payroll had beforehand been run by one other contractor, CGI UK IT Restricted.
The faculty fails to verify on “a line-by-line foundation” that each one transactions within the SAP system had been precisely and full transferred to Metis.
1 October 2023 to 31 March 2024
School of Policing finance workers can’t put together correct monetary administration data.
The faculty can’t produce correct mixture figures of transactions throughout its new and former monetary IT methods.
By the tip of the monetary yr, there are vital considerations in regards to the integrity of monetary data.
The poor visibility of the faculty’s funds contributes to an end-of-year overspend of £1.3m.
November 2023
Payroll supplier SSCL tells the School of Policing it can’t undertake an exterior audit of the faculty’s monetary statements as this isn’t a part of the listing of companies agreed by the House Workplace.
24 November 2023
SCCL receives a proper “request for change” discover to permit an exterior audit.
April 2024
The House Workplace will not be in a position to depend on the faculty’s accounting data to arrange its consolidated monetary statements for 2023-24.
It makes use of unaudited numbers from the faculty’s 2022-23 accounts as a proxy for the faculty’s 2023-24 accounts.
August 2024
5 months after the tip of the monetary yr, the faculty continues to be processing changes to its 2023-24 monetary place.
The faculty recruits contractors with information of SAP and a head of finance in an try and fill gaps in its information about how its former SAP finance system labored. It is just partially profitable.
2 September 2024
School of Policing misses the deadline for submitting accounts to the comptroller and auditor normal on the NAO.
26 November 2024
School of Policing offers NAO with draft annual report and accounts that had been lacking key monetary information.
January 2025
The House Workplace seconds a certified accountant to supervise the School of Policing’s finance division, which up till this level was overseen by somebody with out accounting {qualifications}.
February 2025
The School of Policing is unable to supply adequate proof to help 56% of pattern queries examined by NAO auditor.
March 2025
School of Policing information VAT returns as much as December 2024 after being unable to take action since 31 March 2024.
31 March 2025
School of Policing incurs monetary penalties after failing to file its accounts with Firms Home.
1 April 2025
The faculty appoints a finance and industrial director with accounting {qualifications} to run the finance staff. Beforehand, the staff had been run by somebody with out monetary {qualifications}.
25 April 2025
The faculty offers NAO with full annual report and monetary statements.
Could 2025
The faculty submits its VAT return for the quarter ending 31 March 2025.
July 2025
NAO “disclaims” the School of Policing’s 2023-24 accounts.
