The report by Sir Philip Green on government expenditure is set to ruffle many a feather, but I for one, am not remotely shocked by his findings. As a former Councillor on Oxford City, I know only too well of the impenetrable silos of public expenditure and how both civil servants and local government officers alike, can be very cleverly evasive at providing any information that would reveal scope for some meaningful savings.
Back in 2001, when I was a member of the LibDem/Green administration, I was sounding like a stuck record with my pressing for zero-based budgeting and my passion for trying to get inside the £140million of Oxford City Council's annual spend. I am under no doubt that savings could have been revealed that would have freed up money to better serve the public and maintain and improve front line services. Suffice to say I did not get very far: some other councillors around me felt very threatened that my understanding was so obviously better than their own and I was not supported in trying to obtain information from officers.
You just need to watch the BBC's interview with Philip Green (see link top right to BBC article and video at the foot of this article) to understand the scope of just how much money could be saved. Green gives a very clear indication that obtaining information on certain expenditure amounts was no easy task: ambiguous answers (if you're lucky to get an answer at all) and the lack of accountable processes are symptomatic of how public money can be used to preserve the mini-empires of some unelected public officials on both local and national level.
This government has got it right in tackling this problem but it does beg the question as to whether, had it been done sooner (i.e. by previous governments), the welfare cuts need to be as severe as they are.
Hopefully, the BBC will leave the video up (see below): watch it, then watch it again if you feel yourself tempted to sympathise with civil servants and local government officers when they start demonstrating and striking over the cuts. Although I believe in the right to demonstrate and the right to strike (workers are merely withdrawing capital like investors did with Northern Rock), I do not believe individuals who's jobs are provided and preserved by your and my taxes have the right to be opaque about how those taxes are spent.
