McCabe hits back at Scots efficiency critics

29 Sep 05
Scottish Finance Minister Tom McCabe this week launched a counter-attack against the wave of criticism of the Executive's £1.2bn efficient government initiative.

30 September 2005

Scottish Finance Minister Tom McCabe this week launched a counter-attack against the wave of criticism of the Executive's £1.2bn efficient government initiative.

McCabe insisted it was 'utter nonsense' to claim the Executive was unable to show where resources were being redirected and had no system of monitoring the savings.

He attacked those who wanted to create 'an army of official button counters' to assess the cuts, adding another layer of bureaucracy to government.

The minister said: 'I am not going to waste public money following every single pound saved on one of the many thousands of budget lines in public service organisations. It is a needless waste of valuable resources that could be better spent on nurses, on dentists, on teachers, on police officers.'

McCabe's angry comments, made at a meeting of the Scottish Parliament's finance committee, followed criticism of the Executive's handling of its efficiency drive by members of the committee and their budget adviser, Professor Arthur Midwinter.

The professor questioned the quality of information, bemoaning a lack of output data and budget baseline information. He also claimed there was a lack of transparency and that the exercise simply involved reallocating money, rather than being a genuine efficiency programme.

McCabe emphasised the Executive's determination to succeed with its efficient government programme and said he wanted to put the record straight following some 'inaccurate and frankly misleading assertions'.

He went on: 'One such assertion is that we cannot show where the resources for redirection are being generated. This is utter nonsense. All the savings being made through the efficiency programme are being monitored. I am absolutely determined that these savings will be made and be seen to be made.'

Pointing out that committee advisers and some political commentators had queried where the extra resources would go, McCabe stressed: 'All the resources released by efficient government are reinvested in improving service delivery.'

PFsep2005

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