Chicken –
Treasury avowedly
DOES know the difference between asset capitalisation and cashflow, which is why they brought in Resource Accounting and Budgeting (RAB) a few years ago. RAB introduced commercial-style accounting, including a pile of “non-cash” to pay for depreciation. This was a one-off that applied to all departments and had bi-partisan support.
A mate tells me that the MoD is (largely) responsible for their own downfall, because they couldn’t get the numbers right in 2001, and when Treasury said “are you sure?” MoD told them to wind their necks in… sad thing was that Treasury was right, and the MoD has been playing catch up with their budget ever since.
Add the cost of 2 wars, procurement cost fiascos and general MoD management incompetence, and all of the birds are returning to the roost at once.
Always quite liked travelling by Swish though…
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