Will new PAC investigation of EFA include its partner Deloitte?

The Public Accounts Committee has announced an inquiry examining: 'Whether the creation of the Education Funding Agency has resulted into a coherent business' adding that the EFA distributed funding of £51 billion across the education sector at a cost of £97 million, employing 739 staff.



The PAC said the EFA is 'required to consolidate all academies and free schools within its financial statements for the first time in 2012-13, and the EFA is responsible for collecting and accounting for that data.'

This year academies have submitted their 'annual accounts returns' - different to their financial statements which they are obliged to publish - to the accountancy firm Deloitte: 'EFA's delivery partner Deloitte carries out the validation of financial returns on EFA's behalf. Collecting returns directly from the academies/trusts will allow for more efficient collation and review.'

Finance directors of academies fill in their school's accounts returns - the guide to which points out that the Charity Commission rules governing an academy's financial statement are different to the accounting rules applied to its accounts return which follow the rules used by government departments: 'Academy trusts’ financial statements are prepared in accordance with the Charities Statement of Recommended Practice (SORP) whereas the EFA, DfE and the rest of government prepare financial statements based on international accounting standards captured in HM Treasury’s financial reporting manual (FReM). We therefore need to request some information which will not appear in trusts’ financial statements.'

The Deloitte tender was one of four offers for the job which the EFA described as: 'The EFA has procured services to support it in receipt, validation and consolidation of ATs' financial forecasts and statements in respect of financial years 2012-13 to 2014-15.'

New School Finance submitted an FOI request for a selection of academy accounts returns yesterday - both from the DfE and from a couple of individual academies.