Put this in the file marked “Obscured by the expenses row”: a report that the Government will continue to keep PFI projects off the books, in spite of advice from a whole host of accountancy and industry professionals. As the FT puts it:
“In spite of the widespread expectation that almost all PFI projects would go on the books as the Treasury fulfils a longstanding promise to move the public sector to international financial reporting standards, the Treasury has now issued all-but-final guidance to Whitehall departments indicating that, while they will count on departmental accounts, a different accounting standard will apply for the Treasury’s budgeting purposes. That will be based on the European accounting standard that is applied by the Office for National Statistics to the national accounts. It has the effect that many projects will continue to count as off-balance sheet.
‘The expected effect is that things will go on much as before,’ a leading PFI accounting expert said.
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