Incompetent Or Untrustworthy?

 

I wrote as recently as last month (Whitehall Shortfall http://stevesmithlive.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/whitehall-shortfall.html) about my concern that the Cabinet Office had made a right old royal financial hash and that we should be justifiably concerned on their ability to manage our money.

 

Now, I naively assumed that this was down to incompetence. However, the latest news the Government has no record of how it spends £2.5 billion each year on public policy research leaves me to consider if there are sinister motives. Unethical politician behaviour……surely not!

 

In short, the Government has no central record of around £2.5 billion a year it spends on research commissioned to develop public policy. A recent inquiry found that only 4 out of 24 Whitehall departments maintained a database of research they had commissioned.

 

If I had my “the Government is bloody incompetent” hat on then I would simply shake my head at the inefficient and unorganised shambles another Government department is in.

 

However, with my “you can’t trust them lot at Westminster” hat on then the lack of transparency raises concerns that ministers and officials are quietly ‘burying’ research that they do not agree with.

 

Incompetent or untrustworthy? To be fair, neither should be acceptable yet somehow we shrug our shoulders and accept it.

 

It’s farcical really.