Although central government spending is set to hit £678 billion by 2010-11, the National Audit Office disclosed that not one permanent secretary - the senior civil servants in charge of Whitehall departments - had a professional finance qualification.

Six government bodies did not have even a professionally qualified finance director on their main board, despite a Treasury department requirement to do so.

They included the big-spending Ministry of Defence - which accounts for £40 billion of government expenditure - as well as the Department for International Development, the Crown Prosecution Service, the Office of Fair Trading, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets and the Water Services Regulation Authority.

Fewer than half of all departments - 40% - "invariably" provided ministers and senior officials with a full analysis of the financial implications of their policy proposals, the NAO said.

"I have to wonder if financial management is being taken as seriously as it should be," said Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee which oversees the work of the NAO.

"There has been an improvement in how departments manage their financial resources, but with public finances as they are things are going to get much tougher."