Michael Dugher MP, Labour’s Shadow Minister for the Cabinet Office, responding to announcement by Francis Maude today, said:
“The levels of overspending and waste under this government have been staggering and the announcement today is an attempt to distract from the litany of examples of inefficiency and waste by Ministers.
"The Government has wasted billions of pounds on a bigger benefits bill since 2010, over £3 billion on David Cameron’s unnecessary re-organisation of the NHS and over £40 million has already been written off as a result of the failed Universal Credit programme.
"Across Whitehall, thousands of staff have been made redundant, but then replaced with expensive temporary staff. Over £1.4 billion of taxpayers’ money has been spent on redundancies in the NHS alone.
"The Cabinet Office has been one of the worst offenders, spending over £30 million on sacking staff, but then spending another £30 million on plugging capability gaps with temporary and agency staff. The Minister for the Cabinet Office, the very Cabinet Minister in charge of slashing Whitehall waste, has also spent £8.5 million doing up the headquarters of his own department.
"Labour’s Zero-Based Review of every pound the government spends is uncovering many more examples of waste. Through this work we are exploring better ways to improve services, get maximum value for every pound of taxpayers’ money and rise to the challenge of delivering a recovery that is built to last.
"The Tories have delivered the slowest recovery for over 100 years and real wages are down by an average of £1,600 for working people. Rather than slapping themselves on the back for re-announcing misleading and unofficial statistics of supposed savings, Ministers should be working to root out the massive waste and inefficiency they are presiding over and reform our economy for the long-term.”
Other examples of recent Government waste:
£270 thousand wasted on costly calls to directory enquiries by the Ministry of Defence at the same time as military personal are being made redundant - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ministry-defence-spent-271000-phoning-2364058
Hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money on spent on consultants and marketing at the Department for Education -http://www.politicshome.com/uk/article/82828/sign_up_pro.html
Millions squandered on bad defence procurement - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-21332054
£2.4 billion of taxpayers’ money overpaid in benefits by the government due to ‘official error’ since 2010;
Minsters in charge of tackling climate spent £300,000 on flying around the UK in just one year -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2454554/Climate-change-ministry-spends-300-000-DOMESTIC-flights-UK-coalition-row-erupts-green-energy-policies.html#ixzz34E58gOSF
over £50,000 spent on new TVs for ministerial departments - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/government-officials-spend-50k-flat-screen-2367281#ixzz34E5T32Eq
£8.5million spent by the Minister for the Cabinet Office on doing up the headquarters of his own department -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2107981/Minister-charged-slashing-Whitehall-waste-orders-8-5m-office-renovations-decision-branded-ludicrous-waste-taxpayers-money.html#ixzz34E4bqeOv
Over £40 million spent on IT already written off and a further £90 million in jeopardy due to the mismanaged Universal Credit project.