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Pastimes : The Hot Button Questions:- Money, Banks, & the Economy

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To: Tom Swift who wrote (426)	9/11/2003 11:39:44 AM
From: maceng2	Read Replies (1) of 1417

Treasury at a loss over £27m increase in costs By Andrew Sparrow, Political Correspondent (Filed: 11/09/2003) telegraph.co.uk Senior Treasury officials were severely embarrassed yesterday when they were unable to explain a 40 per cent increase in their department's running costs. As Treasury civil servants, they are supposed to ensure that the Government's budget of more than £400 billion a year is spent wisely. But when MPs on the Commons Treasury committee asked why their department's running costs had risen from £66 million to £93 million in the past year, they were almost lost for words. Nick MacPherson and Hilary Douglas, respectively Treasury directors responsible for public services and corporate services and development, repeatedly failed to explain where the extra £27 million had gone. Gus O'Donnell, who as permanent secretary is the official in charge of the Treasury, said he guessed it had "something to do with resource accounting" but he was unable to elaborate. The officials were giving evidence to the committee on the department's annual report. Andrew Tyrie, a Conservative member of the committee, asked them: "Don't you think it will shock people just a little bit that you do not know how your numbers are put together?" Michael Howard, the shadow chancellor, said later: "This is an appalling example of why Government spending is running out of control. Senior officials at the Treasury itself do not have the faintest idea how taxpayers' money is being spent."

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