HM Treasury admits it doesn’t know how much money it’s spending: encore

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HM Treasury admits it doesn’t know how much money it’s spending: encore

By Mark Pack | Fri 21st November 2008 - 1:25 pm

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Over the summer I blogged about the Treasury’s curious admission that it doesn’t know how much money it spends on, in the words of the question, “branding and marketing”. This week Dizzy Thinks spotted another example; the Treasury doesn’t know how much it spends on heating, electricity or water either. Perhaps it would be easier for someone to just ask what it does know?

Read more by Mark Pack or more about dizzy thinks.
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8 Comments

Gordon 21st Nov '08 - 1:45pm

Why am I not surprised?

Some years ago I got a job with a household-name state-owned company just weeks before it was privatised. They too had only the most rudimentary accounting system; it could just about say how much money came in and how much went out but anything inbetween was pretty much a mystery.

It also turned out that even the most senior staff didn’t know how to evaluate a capital project even though capital spending was a large part of total spending at the time.

I didn’t stay long!
Julian H 21st Nov '08 - 4:22pm

The Tories are, presumably, blaming this on Labour incompetence, when of course this has nothing to do with the party in charge but instead is a stark example of the inherent flaws of government.
Gordon 21st Nov '08 - 5:47pm

I don’t see any reason for it to be an ‘inherent’ flaw. If ministers spent just a little time and effort thinking about efficiency (or at least requiring their departments to do so) then govt would run a whole lot better. Sadly, the culture seems to be to regard the taxpayer as a bottomless money-well.
Julian H 21st Nov '08 - 6:03pm

So where has the culture come from?
Gordon 21st Nov '08 - 9:00pm

Good question.

My guess is that too many (all?) ministers prefer to rush out a response to any “something must be done” headline in the media without pausing to consider alternatives, especially if the best alternative is likely to be a harder initial sell.

Absent a very clear and determined lead from the PM that value matters over spin, this tendency will soon become the rule. Blame Blair for exacerbating an existing trend.

The implication is that this leaves an open goal for a party with a credible committment to value for money. We can’t in any case go on as before – that way lies national bankruptcy.
Julian H 22nd Nov '08 - 6:07pm

I’m afraid I find that explanation rather too similar to the Tory position – ie. that there are no structural problems, it’s just a matter of management. We just need new politicians who will manage things better, and, predictably … we’re the party to do it!

As much as I dislike Labour (and believe me, that is an awful lot) I don’t buy the argument that their ministers are significantly lacking in values when compared to either Tory or LD MPs.

It’s the system that’s at fault. If we can’t offer radical liberalism, we should at least offer radical localism.
Gordon 24th Nov '08 - 6:00pm

I didn’t say “there are no structural problems”. In fact I think the opposite – that there are enormous structural problems and that there is no particular reason to think one Party’s ministers would somehow be systematically better than another party’s ministers.

However, that said the cultural problem that afflicts all parties is so deep that it amounts almost to a structural problem in itself – culture becomes structure.
Julian H 24th Nov '08 - 6:05pm

Agreed, hence why the only solution is to significantly reduce the power-structures of Westminster and Whitehall – by both liberalisation and localisation.