How To Lose £5Billion

[Gromit]

Whitehall Departments have wasted more than £5billion in losses, write-offs and various incompetent spending.
Here are some of the eyewatering amounts...


// Department of Health, They incurred £255 million of constructive losses primarily due to vaccine write-offs. //

// The Department for Education made a loss of £1.2 million because of a payment by a school that went to the wrong bank account. //

// The Department for Work and Pensions £11 million due to overpayments to work programme providers. //

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11414143/Whitehall-losses-Ear-plugs-wrong-receipts-and-wrong-bank-account-payment.html

That is more than the annual bill for Jobseekers Allowance. Should the Government be clamping down on inefficient Departments with the same vigor they do on the unemployed?

[ludwig]

// Should the Government be clamping down on inefficient Departments with the same vigor they do on the unemployed? //

Yes.

[Ellipsis]

Coincidentally it's "only" what Sky and BT paid for the home Premiership football rights. I thought this thread was going to be about that!

[Svejk]

We should crack down on cash-in-hand window cleaners etc. to cover these losses.

[Gromit]

Ellipsis

Did you know that when the new Premier League deal kicks in, the prize money for coming last in EPL will be 3 times more than for winning the Champions League?

[youngmafbog]

Of course the Government should. Are those the biggest ones, because that comes no where near 5 Bn

[Gromit]

Ymb, itsin the link


Total losses were £5,101,789,908
The Ministry of Defence incurred losses of £3,070,825,000
The Department for Work and Pensions incurred losses of £569,319,000
The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills incurred losses of £469,066,000
The Department of Health incurred losses of £761,331,000
The Ministry of Justice incurred losses of £121,884,000

[youngmafbog]

Yes, I was wondering on a more specific level. I.e. is it a few large c*ck-ups or low level incompetence on a grand scale.

I did see some of the things are perhaps unavoidable like "They wrote off £51 million of low cost funeral expenses which could not be recovered from the assets of the deceased." Not too much you can do there unless you start lobbing bodies on a huge pyre down the corporation tip. Others make you wonder how people keep their jobs.

[ToraToraTora]

yes gromit they should.

[Old_Geezer]

How do you lose money that goes to the wrong bank account ? If I get paid money I'm not entitled to I'm fairly sure I'd be forced to return it.

Low cost funerals ? Aren't the authorities responsible for burying those who can not afford it, rather than let them lie there ?

I'm not saying these are good figures but some of them seem a little disingenuous as regards to being a failing.

There are some are genuine errors and humans do make errors (even if the system shoudl ensure things are tested to be fit for purpose before buying loads).

For sure they need to look at their systems though.

[ll_billym]

The Department of Business, Innovation and Skills incurred losses of £469,066,000 - the irony.

[Gromit]

Didn't spot that ll_billym. Indeed.

[ToraToraTora]

just goes to show what an incompetant shower we have as officials in these departments.

[jourdain2]

Yes - a simple answer.