The Defence Committee has called the fact that 40% of planned military redundancies are compulsory as ‘grotesque’ when the MoD’s planned civilian redundancies are entirely voluntary.
The committee will publish its report into the MoD’s Annual Report and Accounts 2010–11 today.
The target for military redundancies across all three of the armed forces is set at 11,000; the target for civilian redundancies is 15,000. The Permanent Under Secretary explained the voluntary civilian redundancies by saying that civilian personnel are flexibly employable. However, the Defence Committee said that this runs contrary to their experience of armed personnel, who are highly trained and skilled.
Chair of the Defence Committee, Rt Hon James Arbuthnot, said,
“The stark and shocking differences between redundancies in the MoD require an exceptionally persuasive explanation, which we are yet to hear. Look at the areas where the Armed Forces are undermanned. Why cannot the MoD retrain Service personnel, who face redundancy, to fill those many trades where there are shortages, such as combat medical technicians or intelligence gatherers?”
The Defence Committee has announced that the MoD’s Annual Accounts 2010-11 do not comply with international financial reporting as laid down by the Treasury and that it has no plans to do so for the foreseeable future. The Defence Committee has sent the Chancellor of the Exchequer a letter explaining this and asking what his plans are for Departments that fail to comply with Treasury accounting rules.
The committee has not had a reply from Mr Osbourne or his office.
The committee also said that the MoD could not account for £5.2 billion worth of inventory and capital shares. The committee said these problems are likely to continue until 2014-15 at the earliest.
James Arbuthnot continued,
“The repeated qualification of the MoD accounts reflects badly on the MoD’s financial management. The situation is unsatisfactory and the MoD and the Treasury need a clear plan to address the shortcomings in the MoD’s accounting systems.”
The Defence Committee has claimed that the level of theft a fraud in the MoD is high and that it is increasing each year. It is also concerned that the levels of recovery from theft and fraud is very low. The committee called upon the MoD to clarify the roles of the various police and security forces dealing with fraud and theft; provide further information on how the problems of prevention, detection and recovery are being managed and, in general, tackle this issue with a greater degree of vigour.
