GOVERNMENT WASTE 2

Defence chiefs have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on art while troops face equipment shortages in war zones and decrepit housing at home. In 2004/05, MoD civil servants bought a set of paintings by Zil Hoque called Nimbus I, II, III, IV at a cost of £160,000. They also bought a set of four paintings by Louise Cattrell that cost £72,000, all excluding VAT. The following financial year, the department spent almost £53,000 simply on maintaining its art collection.

Since the beginning of the Iraq war, officials have bought 3,150 chairs for £1,000 each and 134 widescreen televisions costing £348,000. Since 2005 the MoD has also wasted £7.7 million by losing spare parts in transit. Gen Sir Mike Jackson, the former head of the Army, wrote recently that spending on modern art demonstrated the "cultural divide" at the MoD. Gordon Brown has faced repeated complaints from troops that pay and housing are unacceptable. (Source: Daily Telegraph, Jan/08)

In ten years, £5 billion has been lost through fraud and error. Prisoners, students and those with jobs and money in the bank have all enjoyed payouts to which they were not entitled. Since 1997, more than £17 million has been wrongly paid to prisoners, who are not eligible for many benefits during their incarceration. Students have received £33 million while those who are in hospital for the long term, and are not entitled to Jobseeker's Allowance or Income Support, were handed £10 million. More than £1 billion has gone in benefits to those who have jobs and are not entitled.

Prisoners are not entitled to Jobseeker's Allowance, worth up to £57.45 a week, as they are not available for work. Nor are they eligible for income support, worth the same amount, or pension credit. Help with housing costs is payable only to those on remand, awaiting trial or sentencing. Inmates are not usually eligible for incapacity and disability benefits, the state pension, carer's allowance, industrial injuries benefit or maternity allowance. The sums involved suggest that thousands of prisoners continue to receive handouts through fraud or error after they have been jailed.

MPs concluded that the government had little idea of how much was owed by claimants who had been overpaid. Benefits Minister James Plaskitt said, "Fraud and error was left untackled before 1997 because it wasn't even regularly measured. Since then we have slashed in half losses to fraud and error in Income Support and Jobseeker's Allowance, saving taxpayers around £3 billion. A continuing, hard-hitting benefit fraud campaign is running alongside a new strategy aimed at taking out a further £1 billion of error." (Source: Daily Mail, Oct/07)

Labour's constant tinkering with the names of government departments has cost taxpayers almost £2million. Figures show £30,000 was spent changing the Department of Trade and Industry to the Department for Productivity, Energy and Industry for just one week in 2005. The DTI reverted to its original name when its new title earned it the nickname “Dippy”.

Meanwhile, the Department for Transport became the Department for Environment, Transport and the Regions in 1997 and the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions in 2001. It became the Department for Transport again in 2002 after changes costing £50,000.

The Department for Social Security was changed to the Department for Work and Pensions at a cost of £232,000. The biggest expenditure was £1.5million for creating the Ministry of Justice out of the Department for Constitutional Affairs, formerly the Lord Chancellor’s Department, and part of the old Home Office. The costs came from moving staff, changing letterheads and publicity material and updating websites. (Source: Daily Express, Jun/07)

Capgemini, the company involved in the bungled tax credits system, has been rewarded with a £3.5 billion boost to its contract. It will pocket £8 billion for providing computer support to HM Revenue and Customs instead of the £4.5 billion it had been expected to earn. Capgemini was hired to supply the means-tested tax credits and manage the Pay As You Earn scheme, self-assessment tax forms, child benefit and child trust funds. But computer errors resulted in billions of pounds of overpayments to claimants.

In 2003/2004 and 2004/05, a third of all tax credit awards were overpaid at a total cost of £4 billion. Some £3 billion of has been written off and the Government has conceded that losses are likely to carry on running at £1.2 billion a year. With seven years left to go on the company's-contract, experts warned that the IT bill could rise still further. A Government spokesman said the rising costs of the IT system was due to the need for major new projects and the rising number of people submitting their tax returns on-line. (Source: Mail on Sunday, Mar/07)

A £250,000 turnstile racket was uncovered at the Millennium Dome when a supermarket trolley full of stolen cash was blown over, scattering hundreds of £20 notes. And sacked Dome chief Jenny Page sent out cheques of £100,000 a month to firms who had not even bothered to send proper invoices for work on the ill-fated project. Lord David James, who was called in to sort out the Dome's finances after it opened seven years ago, said, "One of the turnstile operators was wheeling a trolley across a forecourt and was hit by a gust of wind which turned it over. A plastic sack on top of the trolley burst open blowing £2,000 worth of £20 notes everywhere." Lord James said groups of turnstile operators had made up to £250,000 from a scam that went undetected at the Dome for eight months because the Government refused to install CCTV cameras to monitor ticket booths. He explained, "When someone asked for a reduced rate family ticket the operator recorded it as a more expensive ticket and skimmed off the profit." (Source: Mail on Sunday, Mar/07)

A £2billion project to fit Army Land Rovers with new radios is in chaos because the equipment is so heavy it could cause them to roll over and crash. Safety experts have slapped a 40mph speed limit on vehicles fitted with the Bowman radio system making them "totally unusable" in a war zone. Military chiefs now face spending a fortune modifying up to 10,000 Land Rovers to take the weight of the "high-tech" system which replaces the old and insecure Clansman radio.

Bungles by high ranking civil servants and officers have already caused Bowman to be delayed by eight years at the cost of troops' lives. Six Military Police murdered in Iraq were unable to radio for help to nearby Paras because they were using the unreliable old system. Now Bowman faces further delays as experts decide whether to make it lighter or the Land Rovers sturdier.

A senior military source said, "This is a huge cock up. Armoured Land Rovers are in constant use wherever the Army go. A 40mph limit is laughable. You have to have the ability to drive yourself out of trouble in somewhere like Basra, and that means going as fast as you can." The Ministry of Defence said, "Troop safety is of prime importance which is why there is a 40mph limit."

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