By Dan Ilett, 14 November 2006 14:55
NEWS
The Conservative Party is urging the government to build a website that would allow people to "google their tax pounds" in a bid for better transparency.
The proposal, made by shadow chancellor George Osborne, would allow taxpayers to see every single item of expenditure above £25,000 - except those related to national security or personal privacy - on the web.
The move is part of wider legislative proposals made by the Conservatives to make the government more accountable for its spending. The party is set to introduce its Government Spending Transparency Bill in parliament before Christmas.
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Although the bill is likely to be rejected, the move could spark a debate and pressure the government to make it easier to see how tax revenues are spent.
Osborne said government spending has been "shrouded in Whitehall secrecy for too long" and under the scheme people could hold government to account. It would also encourage better spending habits and allow people to "follow the money", he added.
Under the scheme the Treasury would publish the list of government expenditures online in real time.
Earlier this year internet search giant Google said it intends to crack down on the use of its brand name as a generic verb, saying phrases such as 'to google' somebody or something are potentially damaging to its brand.
Comments
There are 3 comments. Join the discussion
1. anonymous
And at what cost would all this information storage and retrieval come?
2. misceng
£25000 is much too small a sum. At that level collection and publishing the data in sufficient detail to make it usable would cost much more than the savings. It must be remembered that the projects will go ahead while the data is being disseminated so reaction will be too late.
As a professional engineer once in the Civil Service I saw three causes of waste. One was the control of finance by administrators who did not have the knowledge to understand the technology but still made decisions affecting professionals who had to manage complex building and engineering contracts. Secondly the Treasury grants funds year by year with no carry over so that if a major project is delayed the money is spent on trivial work to use up the funds. This is because thirdly the Treasury assumes that if you have not spent this years allocation you got too much and next years allocation should be cut. Result too much time is spent arguing about allocations delaying the projects and increasing cost.
There would be great savings if the budgets were for 3 or 5 years adjusted annually so that spend could be regulated for economy not deadlines.
3. Richard
Great idea: Should cover expenditure by national & local government, as well as the many quangos, "agencies," PSVs, etc. etc. etc.
It should also show "committed" expenditure where tax-payers must keep paying into the distant future - eg. PFIs, IFFs etc. etc.
No more "off book" expenditure by government!
Perhaps at last we'll return to slimmer more effective government.