The commentary provides a summary of how the Welsh Government is funded, how it spends its money, what it owns and what it owes. They also explain the Auditor General’s qualification of his audit opinion on the Consolidated Accounts 2019-20.
In 2019-20, Welsh Government ‘group’ spending increased by £1.2 billion (7%) compared with 2018-19. Total expenditure in 2019-20 amounted to £17.5 billion. The Welsh Government ‘group’, which comprises 17 different entities, had assets of £30.4 billion at 31 March 2020 and was carrying some £3.7 billion of liabilities and obligations. The commentary provides further details.
The Auditor General issued a qualified opinion on the 2019-20 accounts. This was due to a material omission of expenditure relating to certain grants business would receive in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, this has arisen due to a disagreement with the Welsh Government on a complex technical accounting issue. The omission of that expenditure means that in his opinion the accounts do not give a ‘true and fair’ picture of the Welsh Government’s financial position in 2019-20. The inclusion of the expenditure would have shown that the Welsh Government had exceeded its authorised net expenditure limit approved by the Senedd for 2019-20, thereby making some expenditure irregular. The Welsh Government disagrees with the Auditor General’s view on the accounting treatment applied and hence with the qualification.
The Consolidated Accounts do not just describe the Welsh Government’s finances; they also provide information about how the Welsh Government is run. Relevant to this, the commentary provides a summary of issues from the Auditor General’s wider work programme in areas including implementation of the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015, workforce planning, grants management, counter-fraud arrangements and ICT.