A word to the wise about saving public money from Selwyn Mogg-Rees, CBE, BA Hons (Oxon)

This Green and Surprisingly Pleasant Land - government spending

Have you heard of an oik called Gareth Davies? Neither had I but he’s some kind of accountant, who apparently heads an outfit called the National Audit Office, which is probably rather lefty. I should add that his name sounds suspiciously Welsh and that he probably carries a clipboard.

What I do know for sure is that he is poking his nose where it is not required. Recently he has been blathering to MPs about the government wasting money and how it could be saved.

According to him annual savings of around £8bn could be made if government contracts were subject to some kind of competition. Even more absurdly he was making the case for saving money, quite a lot apparently, by spending more on maintaining public buildings instead of going for rather cheaper fixes that end up costing more.

He’s probably been speaking to my builder, perfectly nice chap, albeit with something of an accent, who keeps banging on about using higher quality materials because they last longer. Have no fear I’m onto his game because the more I spend on this stuff, the more he gets, probably in backhanders.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yes about the suggestion that money can be saved by upsetting the apple cart of a system that works perfectly well.

Does Davies not know that during the Covid crisis the rather fine chaps running the government (most of whom went to very good schools) called on their old chums asking them to muster up great mounds of personal protective equipment in tout suite mode.

As a result the United Kingdom emerged as number one when it came to battling this wretched virus caused by foreigners. Of course corners were cut, but speed was of the essence and so one of  the brighter sparks in government came up with the idea of a fast track for chosen suppliers of vital kit. And it worked. Tons of the stuff started pouring in.

Only now are we getting this wild talk of money being wasted. I feel particularly sorry for that nice Scottish couple Michelle Mone and Doug Barrowman who worked like dogs to muster up £200 million worth of protective whatever, even though they had not a shred of experience in producing PPE materials. Admittedly some of what they supplied may not have been up to par and the fusspots in the NHS threw it way. But full marks to Baroness Mone (rather easy on the eye but you get shot for mentioning it these days) for showing initiative by getting on the blower to her friends in government and volunteering to come to the rescue.

Other chums also rallied round, rolled their sleeves up and without all the usual tedious rigmarole of an official tendering process got on with the job. It showed what could be done if the right people were given public contracts instead of handing them out to any old Tom, Dick and Harry.

Inevitably what followed was a whole lot of lefty bellyaching, loose talk about fraud, accusations of waste and goodness what else. Even the hapless Plods have been called in ‘to investigate’.

No doubt this Davies fellow thinks this is a good thing but there is no getting around the fact that a crisis requires decisive action. So let’s have a little less of all this brilliant hindsight stuff.

Those of us who are focused on getting things done are not going to be overwhelmed by small print.

Talking of which why has the so called National Audit Office not noticed the incredible sacrifices made by our leaders during the Covid crisis?

Why have they nothing to say about the sharp reduction in government wine and spirit consumption during the height of the crisis in 2020-22?

We now know that the government purchased a mere 130 bottles in 2020-21 followed by a rather modest 1,300 the following year. This compares to the usual 5,000 bottles per year. We also know that at the heart of government in Number 10 officials selflessly bought their own drinks, apparently at Tesco (which sounds rather desperate to me) costing the taxpayer a big fat zero. Alright, there was some sort of lockdown going on and some petty fogging restrictions on gatherings but, big picture, money was saved.

Also overlooked is that the average price of bottles bought by the government was a mere £28-29, hardly enough for a decent vintage and, frankly, perilously close to cooking wine prices. Our chaps have set an example with this frugality but does this Davies fellow acknowledge it?

On the contrary he is full of ideas for making life difficult and upsetting systems that are working perfectly well. It gets worse when people like him bang on about transparency over government contracts. What does that achieve? I’ll tell you:  it puts off hard working companies who quite rightly don’t like having their confidential information blurted out all over the place.

In case anyone is missing the point, let me say a word about this other kerfuffle at the Post Office arising from the Horizon computer system. Two things are clear to me. One, the company responsible was foreign. Two, this Fujitsu mob apparently put in the cheapest bid for the contract. So much for competition eh!