We Were Promised A New Era Of Whitehall Belt-Tightening, So Why Did Quango Chief Order Staff To Blow £1M Of Your Money?

[interestrateripoff]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344518/Quango-chief-Sir-Andrew-Cahn-ordered-staff-blow-1m-public-money.html

A quango chief ordered officials to dream up ways of blowing £1million of public cash which it did not need, leaked emails reveal today.

As the rest of the country braced itself for the deepest austerity cuts since the Second World War, the head of UK Trade & Investment – the Government’s business promotion body – was inventing schemes to ‘get money out of the door’.

The revelations will plunge the UKTI, which funds some of Prince Andrew’s work as a trade ambassador, into crisis.

It will also leave Foreign Secretary William Hague facing questions about his department’s role in urging the organisation to splash taxpayers’ cash.

Sir Andrew Cahn, the body’s £250,000-a-year chief executive, told senior colleagues the Foreign Office was ‘heading for an underspend and wants to get money out of the door’.

‘If we can spend money in this financial year on a one-off basis, then we can have at least £1million,’ he wrote.

‘Can you think what we might do with such money?’

Sir Andrew suggested using the ­unexpected £1million to offer ‘business development visits’ – trips to the UK by staff based abroad – to every UKTI post around the world.

Alternatively, selected UKTI offices could be sent £50,000 each to ‘use locally’, he said.

In terms of the monthly deficit mere pocket change. I don't know what people a whinging about.

[righttoleech]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344518/Quango-chief-Sir-Andrew-Cahn-ordered-staff-blow-1m-public-money.html

In terms of the monthly deficit mere pocket change. I don't know what people a whinging about.

I take it your comment is ironic.......personally the very existence of these leeching parasites raises my blood pressure. VERMIN

[Gone baby gone]

This has been going on for 30+ years and won't stop until the "you're getting less this year as you didn't spend all last year's budget" mentality goes away.

Managers in just about every public and private sector organisation will get no reward for a budget underspend. In one large Pharma I worked at, when the IT department managed to underspend by £500k, the reward for the IT manager was to have his forecasting/budgeting skills called into question.

That's why colour printers adorn executive offices, and outward-bound teambuilding weekends ever became popular.

[Oliver Sutton]

Public sector needs watching like hawks. They'll piss every penny away and then some.

Met someone recently for lunch in London.

He was looking pleased with himself and said he'd just interviewed someone and managed to get them

in on a higher grade than they were expecting.

No sense of responsibility whatsoever in spending other peoples money. People who've had to work hard to pay their taxes.

Of course, he got there by taxi (on civil service expenses) while i got there on the bus.

[interestrateripoff]

I take it your comment is ironic.......personally the very existence of these leeching parasites raises my blood pressure. VERMIN

Just a tad

This has been going on for 30+ years and won't stop until the "you're getting less this year as you didn't spend all last year's budget" mentality goes away.

Managers in just about every public and private sector organisation will get no reward for a budget underspend. In one large Pharma I worked at, when the IT department managed to underspend by £500k, the reward for the IT manager was to have his forecasting/budgeting skills called into question.

That's why colour printers adorn executive offices, and outward-bound teambuilding weekends ever became popular.

Nice, I'd have been more impressed about why he managed to save £500k rather than querying why he can't spend money. I wonder if the shareholders of the said pharma would have the same opinion or whether they would be impressed the IT dept was being well run and money spent efficiently.

Ever year we usually have a spending spree at year end to get rid of the money, apart from those years when there's been an overspend and then we have panic. Now if we could save the money we hadn't spent for the years when we overspend it would be a lot easier. But of course we can't do that.

[Gone baby gone]

Ever year we usually have a spending spree at year end to get rid of the money, apart from those years when there's been an overspend and then we have panic. Now if we could save the money we hadn't spent for the years when we overspend it would be a lot easier. But of course we can't do that.

Exactly. If I was running a large organisation I would:

1) Give a small personal bonus to dept heads for a budget underspend

2) Ensure they weren't punished by being forced to take a smaller budget the following year (unless there are other reasons for a smaller budget, like the company is facing tough times)

Edited January 6, 2011 by What's'isname

[winkie]

Exactly. If I was running a large organisation I would:

1) Give a small personal bonus to dept heads for a budget underspend

2) Ensure they weren't punished by being forced to take a smaller budget the following year (unless there are other reasons for a smaller budget, like the company is facing tough times)

This country needs more managers like you.

[Moneyalchemist]

Exactly. If I was running a large organisation I would:

1) Give a small personal bonus to dept heads for a budget underspend

2) Ensure they weren't punished by being forced to take a smaller budget the following year (unless there are other reasons for a smaller budget, like the company is facing tough times)

I worked for a while for a Quango in the 90s. The way they worked was that they were given a fixed sum each year and a very detailed operating plan (200 pages +) of what they had to spend it on and how to spend it - the Chief Executive had very little discretion as to how to spent the allocation.

There was a culture of panic to ensure above all else that the plan was followed to the letter and that every penny was spent in that year - there was no flexibility - if circumstances changed then the money was still spent even though the few in the organization who were capable of thinking knew it was being wasted.

It is a question of organizational culture - an endemic culture which has at its core a lack of understanding about money and a lack of responsibility towards it.

It is the same culture whether in public organizations or private corporates.

[billybong]

Be patient.

MPs will explain everything when they get back from their 3 weeks Christmas holiday next week. That is if they have time before their 2 weeks holiday next month.

Edited January 6, 2011 by billybong