12. Part of the reason for the lack of clarity in business cases is that the issue of accounting treatment has distracted attention away from VFM. Most private finance projects have previously been off-balance sheet and not recorded in Government statistics of Public Sector Net Debt. Treasury guidance is clear that accounting treatment should not drive decisions to use private finance. Some departmental guidance to local projects, however, has historically emphasised the need to shape projects to make them off-balance sheet. Funding and budgeting mechanisms make on-balance sheet projects less attractive. Numerous project and programme managers have told us that keeping debt off-balance sheet was a driver behind their projects' use of private finance.