THE GAS PLAN

The GAS plan is an annual document which determines the scope of the Head of the GAS activities, and will normally include contributions to the projects undertaken each year by the Development of Accountancy Resources Team (DART), participation in conferences and a regular cycle of meetings, including Heads of Departments and others in the Civil Service and professional accountancy bodies as well as interested parties outside the Service.

The project work is aimed at establishing good practice for accountancy and the use of accountants in government, thereby helping to achieve the objectives of the GAS. For a project to proceed it must first of all be agreed by departments (through Heads of Accountancy Profession) that :-

(i) there is a need to undertake the work in the first place;

(ii) DART is best placed to coordinate the work; and

(iii) the project is to be included in the GAS Plan.

DEVELOPMENT OF ACCOUNTANCY RESOURCE TEAM:

OBJECTIVES AND PLANNED ACTIVITIES FOR 2001/02

(1)               Promoting the use of resource-based information across the Senior Civil Service

Working with Treasury spending teams, the Central Accountancy team and outside organisations such as the Centre for Management and Policy Studies (CMPS) to ensure Senior Managers are aware of resource-based information and how it can be applied to enhance decision-making and inform business planning in departments.  

(2)            Identifying departments experiencing difficulties in implementing RAB and taking appropriate action, including bringing suggested courses of action to the attention of both the departments concerned and relevant Treasury teams

During 2001/02, DART will assume a broader role encompassing both operational and training aspects of accountancy and finance under the heading of ‘helping departments to help themselves’. This will involve a risk-based analysis of departments experiencing difficulties in implementing RAB and identifying potential courses of action to overcome these difficulties. The risk assessment will involve compiling information from a variety of sources and working with both the departments concerned and Treasury spending teams to help ensure successful implementation.

(3)            Liaising with departments to help identify best practice in both producing and using resource based information

This will involve working with departments and the Treasury’s General Expenditure Policy and Central Accountancy teams to help identify the scope for producing resource based information in a timely and efficient manner and subsequently putting it to best use, for example in support of performance measures and targets as part of the forthcoming spending review.

(4)            Support for the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) Team Communications Strategy and 2001/02 Plan

DART will support the WGA Team in helping to communicate the WGA programme through GASETTE, conferences and any other opportunities that arise. In addition, DART will help define and meet the skill needs created through the introduction of Central Government Accounts (CGA) by arranging seminars, workshops or any other form of training session envisaged by the WGA 2001/02 Plan.

(5)            Support for the Government Accountancy Service (GAS)

(I)  Arrange

•   One self-financing GAS conference
•   One self-financing trainee conference
•   Two conferences for Heads of Professions and Senior Professionals
•   Up to three workshops for Networks

(II)  Communicate with accountants in the GAS through

• 4 editions of the Gasette magazine between May 2001 and March 2002
• Talks at conferences and on CSC courses on request (where resources permit)

(III) Co-ordinate

• The Finance Training Committee, Investigative and Small Departments Networks

(IV)  Provide

•  Statistics on the GAS, for use by customers in departments, and to provide  HOTGAS and other internal customers with aggregate information on the size and structure of the GAS
•  Subject to resource availability, ad hoc advice to HOAPs and other tasks for departments (eg advice on recruitment exercises)
•  Advice and guidance on Continuing Professional Development for accountants and distribution of details of courses for qualified and trainee accountants (including information on corporate discounts)
•  A survey of UK-based colleges which provide accountancy education, for use by trainee accountants in the GAS and their managers
•  A salary survey for accountants and trainees incorporating allowances and study terms

(V)   Maintain links with

• The major accountancy institutes, training and other bodies as an outward looking organisation ourselves
• Overseas governments who are progressing RAB-type initiatives to learn from their experiences in developing and implementing training programmes
• Departments, particularly those responsible for co-ordination of professional groups, to discuss human resource issues (eg emerging thinking on the modernising government agenda)

(VI)  Other

• Act as liaison point for interchanges of accountants

Other activities as resources allow (and in support of objectives 1-4 above):

Internet/GSI (Government Secure Internet)

Development of the DART website and co-ordination of the Directorate website framework including WGA and CA. Identifying a publications strategy and linkages between departmental intranet, GSI and the Internet. Encouraging greater interaction across the GAS through the establishment of electronic discussion groups, bulletin boards, technical query sections etc. Exploring electronic links to accountancy colleagues in the NHS and other sectors.

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