Accountability & Governance for New Accounting Officers

To support Accounting or Accountable Officers (AO), the HM Treasury has published “The Accounting Officer’s Survival Guide”. The use of ‘survival’ implies tremendous duties and responsibilities placed on the Accounting Officer. There is a list of essential duties of an Accounting Officer, as well as a list of personal responsibilities AO need to take ownership of. This ranges from specific areas such as information management and procurement to broader areas such as working with the board and making difficult decisions. Accounting Officers are expected to use ‘the accounting officer lens’ to assess an initiative or activity meet the required standards as expected in public sector accountability.

In this online virtual training from our Accountabilty & Governance series with trainer Bill Malloy, will provide in-depth information on what are AOs duties and personal responsibilities in practice. The training materials will be adapted to reflect the governance framework and context each AO participant operates in, especially Accounting Officers from the devolved administrations. Learning points will be illustrated through the use of real-life case studies.

At the Civil Service College, we tailor our courses to each attendee’s role and organisations, ensuring that each delegate gets the most out of the training. Our courses and trainers are continuously updated and evaluated to ensure that we are always delivering the best service possible.

Key Training Features

Who Can Attend

Learning Resources

Key Training Features:

• Who is an Accounting or Accountable Officer?
• What are Accounting or Accountable Officer’s personally responsible for?
• How can their team and their Board support Accounting or Accountable Officer?
• What is expected to be proper conduct of public business in various guidance?
• External scrutiny by the National Audit Office and Public Accounts Committee (including the devolved regions)
• Understand the accountability relationship between their Board and their sponsoring department

Who Can Attend:

This virtual course is designed for Chief Executives of public bodies who often hold the Accounting (or Accountable) Officer position. Those who support the Accounting Officer would find this course useful as it will give them insights into how their role can strengthen governance and assurance.

View course outline