1. I am pleased to accept the Committee's invitation to give evidence and I will restrict that evidence to my own area of specialist expertise.36 I have aligned the structure of the memorandum to the questions set out in the Committee's call for evidence (House of Lords Select Committee on Economic Affairs, 2009). A much fuller exposition of my views is available in an academic paper (Heald and Georgiou, 2009), a copy of which I have supplied to the Clerk.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
36 I am Professor of Accountancy at the University of Aberdeen Business School and specialist adviser on public expenditure and government accounting to the Treasury Committee of the House of Commons. From 1 August 2004 to 31 July 2009, I served a five-year term as a member of the Financial Reporting Advisory Board, on the nomination of the Head of the Government Economic Service as an independent economist. It is important to stress that the views expressed in this memorandum are my own and must not be attributed to any organisation.