Don’t ask us to pay extra tax if we can’t be certain our money won’t be wasted
Is First Minister Nicola Sturgeon on some kind of mission to persuade us all to pay more income tax to fund better quality public services (your report, 8 September)? She wants ‘’an honest, mature debate’’ on how they can best be delivered. Her attention can first be drawn to a session held at the tail-end of the Edinburgh Book Festival less than a fortnight ago. It featured Dame Margaret Hodge, the former Chair of the Public Accounts Committee at Westminster and she was talking about her book Called to Account.
Although it is set in the context of public expenditure under the remit of Whitehall departments, it should be required reading for all concerned with public policy in Scotlandandthesheervolume of waste of money and time that can occur. As a rough estimate, she figured that of government spending amounting to £800 billion, about £100bn was wasted. Why?
The answer, she suggested, lies in lack of co-operation between government departments; lack of accountability when private firms take on public contracts (on the part of both client and contractor); lack of strategic direction in purchasing policies; a failure on the part of both public and private sectors to understand each other’s needs; a lack of willingness by central government to confront multinational organisations over tax avoidance; incompetence and lack of foresight over the introduction of information technology systems; collusion between the major accountancy firms and the HMRC; and political interference in defence contracts.
This may sound a world awayfromthesimplequestion of whether taxes should rise at Holyrood to help finance, for example, higher standards of personal care. But what the First Minister cannot ignore is the public concern, however articulated, that money is wasted for broadly similar reasons in the Scottish Government. It is a factor she has to confront before the voters should be asked to accept a higher level of taxation.
BOB TAYLOR
Shiel Court, Glenrothes