News1 min ago
Labour Scorched Earth Spending Confirmed ?
The BBC have learnt that civil service chiefs lodged formal protests at spending decisions by Labour ministers in the dying months of their rule.
They were sufficiently concerned that they invoked they invoked the “nuclear option” of demanding written instructions from their political masters, union leader Jonathan Baume said.
There was dismay at Labour’s use of public finances, he added.
Ex-ministers have previously dismissed claims of excessive spending as “spin” by the coalition government.
The government has already called for a review of all spending commitments and pilot projects signed off by Labour ministers since the start of the year.
The head of the First Division Association, Mr Baume told 5 live’s chief political correspondent John Pienaar: “When a permanent secretary asks for their letter of direction from a minister, it is because they feel that a serious decision is being taken, which they feel is not right.
“It’s not a decision that is taken very often to ask for such a letter of direction, which is why it is regarded something of a nuclear option. So when it happens it tends to be a big spending decision, where the civil service believes this is not the right thing to do.”
David Laws said that in some cases the decisions “were made against accounting officer advice”.
In the context of the UKs dire financial situation and the MPs expenses waste, what on earth have Labour been playing at with our money and who was responsible ?
They were sufficiently concerned that they invoked they invoked the “nuclear option” of demanding written instructions from their political masters, union leader Jonathan Baume said.
There was dismay at Labour’s use of public finances, he added.
Ex-ministers have previously dismissed claims of excessive spending as “spin” by the coalition government.
The government has already called for a review of all spending commitments and pilot projects signed off by Labour ministers since the start of the year.
The head of the First Division Association, Mr Baume told 5 live’s chief political correspondent John Pienaar: “When a permanent secretary asks for their letter of direction from a minister, it is because they feel that a serious decision is being taken, which they feel is not right.
“It’s not a decision that is taken very often to ask for such a letter of direction, which is why it is regarded something of a nuclear option. So when it happens it tends to be a big spending decision, where the civil service believes this is not the right thing to do.”
David Laws said that in some cases the decisions “were made against accounting officer advice”.
In the context of the UKs dire financial situation and the MPs expenses waste, what on earth have Labour been playing at with our money and who was responsible ?
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I feel that these people should be accountable for any misuse of public finances, but instead we have the site of Darling still sitting on the front bench of the opposition and the low life milliban brothers prancing about as though there was not a problem with there past government and if there was any misuse of funds it had nothing to do with them.
In my eyes billions of pounds of uk tax payers money has been wasted without anyone ever being taken to task about it, and i feel there needs to be a complete review of all spending by the ex labour government from the time Gordon Brown became prime minister.
In my eyes billions of pounds of uk tax payers money has been wasted without anyone ever being taken to task about it, and i feel there needs to be a complete review of all spending by the ex labour government from the time Gordon Brown became prime minister.
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I keep hearing this - I don't see any specifics
Lets look at the specifis the Times is quoting
- A series of defence contracts signed shortly before the election, including a £13 billion tanker aircraft programme whose cost has “astonished and baffled” ministers.
- £420m of school building contracts - This is an ongoing and long standing program certainly not hidden - In fact last year opposition parties said it was too late coming!
http://news.bbc.co.uk.../scotland/8278492.stm
- The “e-borders” IT project for the immigration service - announced in 2007 and hugely ambitious - aiming to track everybodi in and out of the country - can't see this getting canned can you?
- A crisis in the student loans company - OK who was unaware that this was in trouble certainly nobody with kids at University
- The multi-billion-pound cost of decommissioning old nuclear power plants, -Well imagine my surprise this must be the oldest skeleton in the closet I've ever heard of - it was well known when I was in the nuclear industry 20 years ago!
- A £600m computer contract for the new personal pensions account scheme rushed through by Labour this year, which will still cost at least £25m even if it is cancelled.
And cancellation charge on contracts is new?
What a pile of pooh this story is - This was clearly being written in Conservative party head office 6 months ago!
Lets look at the specifis the Times is quoting
- A series of defence contracts signed shortly before the election, including a £13 billion tanker aircraft programme whose cost has “astonished and baffled” ministers.
- £420m of school building contracts - This is an ongoing and long standing program certainly not hidden - In fact last year opposition parties said it was too late coming!
http://news.bbc.co.uk.../scotland/8278492.stm
- The “e-borders” IT project for the immigration service - announced in 2007 and hugely ambitious - aiming to track everybodi in and out of the country - can't see this getting canned can you?
- A crisis in the student loans company - OK who was unaware that this was in trouble certainly nobody with kids at University
- The multi-billion-pound cost of decommissioning old nuclear power plants, -Well imagine my surprise this must be the oldest skeleton in the closet I've ever heard of - it was well known when I was in the nuclear industry 20 years ago!
- A £600m computer contract for the new personal pensions account scheme rushed through by Labour this year, which will still cost at least £25m even if it is cancelled.
And cancellation charge on contracts is new?
What a pile of pooh this story is - This was clearly being written in Conservative party head office 6 months ago!
http://www.guardian.c...vants-labour-spending
The Guardian this morning says
“Civil servants came under increasing pressure from ministers in the dying months of the Labour government to carry out expensive orders that they disagreed with and responded by submitting an unprecedented number of formal protests in the run-up to the general election.
The five separate protests came in the form of written ministerial directions – requested by the most senior civil servant in a department when they disagree with a minister's decision so strongly that they refuse to be accountable for it.
The revelation adds weight to the coalition government's claims that ministers were profligate in the final weeks of the last government.
Such ministerial orders are rare and signify an irresolvable dispute between a minister and his most senior civil servant. Whitehall sources told the Guardian there had been five this year. Public records also show nine last year and five between 2005 and 2008.
That marks a big increase on the previous decade. A list of these ministerial directions published in the House of Commons shows that they were issued at a rate of two a year between 1990 and 2005.”
The Guardian this morning says
“Civil servants came under increasing pressure from ministers in the dying months of the Labour government to carry out expensive orders that they disagreed with and responded by submitting an unprecedented number of formal protests in the run-up to the general election.
The five separate protests came in the form of written ministerial directions – requested by the most senior civil servant in a department when they disagree with a minister's decision so strongly that they refuse to be accountable for it.
The revelation adds weight to the coalition government's claims that ministers were profligate in the final weeks of the last government.
Such ministerial orders are rare and signify an irresolvable dispute between a minister and his most senior civil servant. Whitehall sources told the Guardian there had been five this year. Public records also show nine last year and five between 2005 and 2008.
That marks a big increase on the previous decade. A list of these ministerial directions published in the House of Commons shows that they were issued at a rate of two a year between 1990 and 2005.”
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