Nexus is in the top 1% of public bodies when it comes to managing its accounts efficiently, it has been announced.
Nexus, which owns and manages the Tyne and Wear Metro, has been marked out for praise by the Government-appointed Audit Commission for the speed with which it was able to publish fully audited accounts with an unqualified audit opinion.
The transport executive, which delivers services for the North East Combined Authority, was the first public body in the North East, and only the seventh in the country, to publish fully audited accounts this year.
The Audit Commission has congratulated Nexus for publishing accounts before the end of July, the fifth time in a row it has achieved this. Nexus manages an annual budget covering £170m of operational expenditure. It is also in the process of delivering the £389m Metro all change modernisation programme, a Government-funded project to renew tracks, refurbish trains and improve stations with annual capital spending of around £40m a year.
It is overseeing the largest scale implementation of a smartcard system using gatelines in the UK outside of London. This is on top of providing hundreds of subsidised bus routes, including school buses, and specialist transport for disabled people. Nexus also owns and operates the cross-Tyne Shields Ferry service.
Director of Finance and Resources for Nexus, John Fenwick, said: “This mention by the Audit Commission reflects the efficient way in which we manage our budgets and account for expenditure.
“We are delivering an extremely ambitious modernisation programme at a time of great pressure on public spending, which makes it all the more impressive that we have continued to maintain the very high standards we set in financial management.”