but the on-balance sheet / off balance sheet hasn't got a great deal to with Resource Accounting (RAB)
Squirrel, are you siure about that? IIRC the other gotcha under PFI & RAB is that if an asset is a PFI it is deemed to be
off balance sheet then you the user (in this case it would be Air Cmd/2 Gp) would
not pay the
RAB "cost of capital" and "depreciation". If the asset is treated as
on balance sheet then the user (Air Cmd) has to pay the
RAB cost of capital and depreciation charges = UNAFFORDABLE in this case!!
Now of course these are only HMT accounting guidleines so the solution is simple - scrap the complete @rse that is RAB.