jueves, 6 de enero de 2011

David Cameron attacks Whitehall 'culture of spending' - Telegraph.co.uk

"I think it is a cultural problem in Whitehall. Frankly, it's a culture that needs to change and we are going to change it," he said. "This idea that you can shuffle money out of the door to meet your budget is wrong."

Sir Andrew's email also caused anger at the Treasury.

Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, wrote to Cabinet ministers warning them that any attempts by officials to use up underspent money would result in new cuts from their budgets.

"We expect departments to focus any remaining discretionary spending on areas that will generate savings in the coming years, easing the transition to the tighter budgets set out in the Spending Review," he wrote.

"If there is evidence of departments seeking to "get money out of the door" before the year end, this will be taken into consideration in future decisions on spending issues."

A former British Airways executive, Sir Andrew joined UKTI, which promotes British exports, in 2006.

He left UKTI in December and now works for Nomura, an investment bank.

The trade body's accounts show that in 2006, the cash value of Sir Andrew's public sector pension was £611,000. By March 2010, it had risen in value to £1,189,000.

The value of the pension he will be able to draw increased from £35,000 a year to as much as £65,000.

Labour said Sir Andrew's email showed a "chaotic" financial situation at the Foreign Office.

UKTI refused to comment on the leaked email or say if any action was being taken against anyone else involved in it.

The body but insisted it spent public money sensibly. A spokesman said: "Government spend is subject to rigorous value for money checks to ensure appropriate return for taxpayer funding. UKTI has not drawn any additional resource from the FCO this financial year."

Sir Andrew was a highly successful leader, UKTI said. In his last year in office, the department helped 25,000 companies to earn an extra £5 billion in almost 100 markets overseas.

No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario