30 January 2004
Big government spending departments are being urged to remove unnecessary bureaucracy and confusion between agencies to ensure that cash for the public services reaches the front line.
A National Audit Office report, published on January 28, identified five areas that should be carefully monitored if Whitehall is to maximise the impact of the extra £61bn for public services coming on stream over the next three years – equivalent to an additional £1,000 for every person in the UK.
Focusing on the health, education and transport departments, the NAO singled out delivery chains, where an often complex network of bodies is involved in distributing funds, as a means by which aims were diluted or misunderstood.
The report also warned that an increase in investment would not yield extra benefits unless money is transformed into additional staff, infrastructure and IT systems. It called on departments to focus on developing project management skills and partnership working.
Other areas highlighted in the report were organisational capacity, targeted resources, risk management and proper performance evaluation and monitoring.
Among the remaining recommendations were the development of contingency plans in case service improvements fail to emerge, and clear identification of management information so that performance can be assessed.
Public Accounts Committee chair Edward Leigh raised a note of caution, saying it was still not clear whether taxpayers would see £61bn worth of improvements.
He said: 'Examples given in the report raise some serious questions in my mind. NHS spending on agency nurses tripled over five years because of a shortage in capacity, the Strategic Rail Authority doesn't always follow procurement processes meant to minimise service delivery, and the Department for Education and Skills' performance has stagnated.'
PFjan2004
