Directorate of Accounts (Bills) (Hansard, 10 January 1996)

§ Mr. Arbuthnot

The Directorate of Accounts (Bills) became a defence agency of the Ministry of Defence on 1 January 1996 following the restructuring of the Defence Accounts Agency. The agency, to be known as the Defence Bills Agency, is located in Liverpool and has a staff of 652 MoD civil servants. The agency is responsible for the authorisation and payment of bills from MoD's suppliers and contractors and the invoicing and collection of MoD receipts. In addition, the agency will maintain accounting records for the MoD central ledger and provide financial management information to budget holders and other MoD customers including other defence agencies.

As part of the Government's "Competing for Quality" initiative, the Directorate of Accounts (Bills) underwent a market testing feasibility study. As a result of this it was decided to keep the work of the directorate in house and to set challenging efficiency targets. These have been met and the in-house team and has been awarded a three-year fixed-price service level agreement effective from 1 April 1996. Embodied within the SLA are efficiency savings of over 27 per cent. measured against a baseline of the agency's 1993–94 outturn and these will be achieved by 31 March 1996.

The former Director of Accounts (Bills), Mr. M. A. Rowe, is the acting chief executive, pending the results of an open competition to appoint a successor. The chief executive will be seeking to develop the current organisation's professional expertise and improve the high performance standards to fulfil the agency's aim of providing its customers with an efficient service which offers the best value for money. The chief executive has been set the following key targets:

1. To pay 97 per cent. of correctly presented bills within 11 working days of receipt and 100 per cent. within 30 days of receipt.
2. To raise 100 per cent. of invoices within 5 working days of instruction.
3. To obtain ISO 9002 accreditation.
4. To review the DBA internal management information/costing system.
5. To develop an accruals accounting system.
6. To make financial management information available on diskette each week to all MoD customers.
7. To meet 100 per cent. of the performance criteria laid down in the SLA.
8. To deliver the service contracted for in the SLA at the agreed price.

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Copies of the agency's framework document are being placed in Library of the House.