Government waste – you couldn’t make this up!

Posted By: Malcolm Bruce
Date Posted: 29/12/2008

There have been some unbelievable examples of Government waste recently. At a time when everyone else is belt-tightening, we see Labour ministers pouring our money down the drain.
After all the lectures Gordon Brown gave us over the years about being prudent, his own government is wasting massive sums of taxpayers’ cash.
Labour’s shameful list of waste

• £13 billion on an NHS record system that is a complete failure
• £130 million on refurbishing Ministry of Justice offices
• £81 million on a Department of Transport economy drive that was supposed to save £57 million
• £29 million on accommodation for asylum seekers that was never built
• £265.8 million the amount the government spent on advertising, marketing and public relations in 2007/8, an increase of £197.2 million since 1997-98
• £200 million wasted over the past five years on IT projects that were never completed
• £7 million on chauffeur driven cars for ministers in one year
• £28.78 million in rent for unoccupied houses for soldiers and their families
• £330 million overspent by government departments on their premises
• £4.2 million by the Government’s Qualifications & Curriculum Authority on hotel rooms in an 18 month period

And finally
• £20,000 asking 15 Devonians about water pollution and the role of livestock farming
• £50,000 on a party to which only 20 guests were invited
• £2,000 each on image and public speaking training for Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and Culture Secretary Andy Burnham

With the UK going ever deeper into recession under Labour, I think it’s a disgrace that we have a government that wastes tax payer’s money in such a shameful manner.