Yet More Government Waste Of Money & Spin

Yep, our government - that same government who assures us they are prudent, insist on value for money and who are all-round good-eggs, whose only wish is that we do as they tell us - has most ably demonstrated once again that where efficiency is concerned it is one asset they don't have.

So why, in the name of all that is holy, are they trying to run an efficiency programme? The Daily Telegraph reports that the Department of Transport's programme to cut administrative costs ended up costing £81million (yet another bill we the taxpayer will have to pay). Amongst the problems experienced was yet another malfunctioning computer programme! Coupled with this, if that was not bad enough, was the wild understimating of prospective costs (which over-ran by 120%), and the overestimating of benefits (which undershot by 65%).

Remember Gordon Brown's acceptance speech on becoming Prime Minister - remember he assured us that he had 'listened'; implying that there would be no more spin, only honesty with open government? Well, obviously what he heard is still trying to find the one brain cell our Dear Leader has so it can register the fact that we the public don't want any more spin.

The Learning and Skills Council (LSC) is an abysmally hopeless quango that presides over the nationalised "skills industry". It's an underperforming quagmire of 500 separate organisations and bureaucracies costing us over £12bn pa, yet failing to deliver anything that employers value in terms of skills.

Earlier this year in response to mounting criticism  the government claimed it was closing the LSC. Yes, I thought it too good to be true - the government doing what it said it would do? What has happened is a classic example of 're-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic'

According to the official plans just issued by the Department for Children Schools and Families, the LSC will be split into three. There will be a Young People’s Learning Agency (another quango), a Skills Funding Agency (yet another quango), and a rump which will be bundled off to local councils. The number of people employed will remain completely unchanged. The nameplates on the front doors will change, but there will be no saving whatsoever. Indeed, the chances are that costs will increase, if only by the cost of planning and executing the deckchair shuffle.

If the Department for Children Schools and Families is involved then pound to a penny its a load of Balls!

HT: Burning Our Money