We need some tech savvy accountants in Parliament

The other day I was bemoaning the cost to the taxpayer of dumping the Dumfermline Building Society. I said we need some number crunchers in Parliament. Today, it is MP’s expenses and we still need number crunchers.

Courtesy of a Tweet from a very annoyed Martyn Shiner, I discover over at Letters from a Tory:

Stationery and postage - After Siobhain McDonagh of the Labour Party racked up a bill of £13,900 on stationery and then spent an extra £35,207 of taxpayers’ money on posting letters, there was a mini-crackdown on this expense.  A new maximum of £7,000 was set, and the winner of this award is… David Drew from the Labour Party! David was the only MP to spend the maximum, and Labour can boast 18 of the top 20 big spenders on stationery and postage.  In fact, the first non-Labour MP in the list is in 18th position. His name? David Cameron.  TOTAL COST TO TAXPAYER: £2,261,079

IT - fairly self-explanatory, as MPs can spend our money on buying themselves new IT equipment.  The winner of the award for the MP who spent the most on IT services goes to… Liam Byrne of the Labour Party!  He managed to hold onto his title by blowing £2,721 on IT last year, almost £200 more than he spent last year and over £800 more than any of his competitors.  Labour have 35 of the top 50 IT spenders.  TOTAL COST TO TAXPAYER: £773,438

That’s £3,034,517 – most of which could have been avoided.

Why is it necessary to send letters when we have email? Or if documents must be schlepped around then what’s wrong with services like Boxes.net, edocr for sharing or echosign for documents that need signatures? Each of these services is very low cost and I’m sure it wouldn’t be beyond the wit of someone engaged in procurement to negotiate a club rate for any or all of these services? Well – maybe that’s a stretch but you get my drift.

But how do MP’s manage to blow £2.2+ million on IT? Is there no recycling of laptops? Hasn’t anyone from central buying done a bulk deal? Is it the case that somehow the butt clenching rules that apply to government departments somehow don’t apply ot MPs?

Bring on the tech savvy accountants I say. Better still – someone like Martyn who’s had to build systems out of thin air for a small business. These people know more tan any MP will ever understand about the need to run a tight ship. But then I suppose there is one slight difference. With a small business, it’s their money. With MP’s, it’s someone else’s – yours.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Jacqui Smith faces new row over home expenses (guardian.co.uk)

Tagged as: GRC, Member of Parliament, waste