UK Health Security Agency set up with no formal governance and weak financial controls

UK Health Security Agency set up with no formal governance and weak financial controls The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) was set up with financial controls so poor that it cannot be established whether its transactions were applied to the purposes laid out for it by Parliament.

In a report published today on the Department of Health and Social Care’s 2021-22 Annual Report and Accounts, the Public Accounts Committee notes that the UKHSA’s weak financial controls meant that, highly unusually, it could not be established whether its accounts were true and fair. For example, UKHSA’s consumption of £3.3 billion worth of inventory transferred from NHS Test and Trace could not be verified by proper financial records. The UKHSA did not even perform bank reconciliations, one of the most basic financial controls for an organisation.

See also:

• UKHSA was set-up with 'no formal governance' The Daily Mail
• MPs criticise ‘staggering’ failures at UK Health Security Agency The Guardian
• British lawmakers say new health agency had weak financial controls Reuters