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New Treasury cost-saving unit sparks concerns of duplication and unclear benefits for taxpayer
A lack of resources, a very short lifespan and high risk of duplication has left MPs on the Treasury Committee sceptical about the newly established Office for Value for Money (OVfM) according to a new report.
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In a report published by the Treasury Select Committee today, MPs raise concerns that the OVfM Chair, David Goldstone CBE, is only contracted for a year and that the unit only had 12 full-time members of staff in December. It is therefore difficult to see how it will have a meaningful impact on driving efficiencies in departments.
The Committee also highlight seven examples of organisations, teams and processes which have already been established to ensure value-for-money is considered in public spending decisions. Those organisations are only a selection from the bodies working on value for money across Whitehall, which shows there is a clear risk of unnecessary duplication.
The report highlights that there is very little information on which parts of government the OVfM will work with, how it will scrutinise departments’ investment proposals and who is responsible for evaluating OfVM’s effectiveness. The Committee, therefore, calls on the Treasury to publish those details.
The Committee is also calling on the Government to publish an estimate of how much it will spend on the OVfM including any use of external consultants.
The Office for Value for Money was established by the Chancellor in the 2024 Autumn Budget and given the remit to ‘provide targeted interventions through the multi-year Spending Review’ and make ‘recommendations for system reform’. Both objectives are intended to 'root out waste and inefficiency’.
The transcript of the Committee’s session with officials at the Office for Value for Money is here.
Chair comment
Chair of the Treasury Select Committee, Dame Meg Hillier MP said:
“Our Committee has concluded the Office for Value for Money is an understaffed, poorly defined organisation which has been set up with a vague remit and no clear plan to measure its effectiveness. All of which leads me to feel this initiative may be something of a red herring.
“The Treasury needs to share far more information about what this small team will actually achieve for the taxpayer which cannot be done elsewhere. It must also be transparent about how it will operate and how it will assess its effectiveness.”
Further information
Original article link: https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/158/treasury-committee/news/204783/new-treasury-costsaving-unit-sparks-concerns-of-duplication-and-unclear-benefits-for-taxpayer/
