tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2129071536244563582024-03-08T07:58:46.531-08:00Peter Webb On TaxPeter Webb's thoughts and observations about the administration of Local Government Tax in the United KingdomGraham Webbhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16664858226292882468noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-69097760867403606112017-02-03T04:09:00.000-08:002017-02-03T04:09:00.984-08:00<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">GOVERNMENT
MANAGEMENT VOID<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">This
is best described by the NAO (National Audit Office) in a recent report as
follows: <b>“<span style="color: #c00000;">we
do not consider that there exists a coherent, enduring framework for planning
and management that government needs.” </span></b>At last recognition…but what
will be done?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">The
<b><i>management
cycle</i></b> is integral to virtually all human activities: the car driver has
a destination and is constantly reacting to the <b>feedback</b> that comes at him through the windscreen, the next corner
and so on. 1n the 1940s fighter and bomber pilots were debriefed immediately on
landing <b>enabling operational plans to be
updated</b>. The industry boss will be
constantly looking ahead, giving directions and strategies aided by feedback,
statistics and so on. Periodically his finance team will collate proposals and
needs from all quarters of the organisation and compile the plan for the
ensuing period for adoption or amendment. The resulting <b>budgets</b> are then issued back down the line for execution and as
time passes report back on outcomes, all
in standard measured format. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">Government
doesn’t behave like that. It regards politics as the method and as an end in
itself. It does not even seem to have a one-page public statement of its
primary objectives in running the country. Lacking <b>management information</b> it drives with a rear-view mirror and misted
windscreen. It sets up a committee. It sets up a quango (jobs for the boys). It
‘empowers’ (?). It legislates and then ‘takes the day off’. It excludes. It
believes it can manage without ‘tools’ and ‘machinery’ which are regarded as
separate and beneath consideration. It doesn’t understand that the <b>art of management</b> is the delegation of
responsibility while retaining control. It seems to be trying to fill the void
by second guessing and supplementing unstructured line management using words
like ‘independent’ and ‘democratic, to ‘scrutinise’ (looking for what?) and debate
without executive conclusion.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">The above can be seen in the FLAW evidence put
to the C&AG (Comptroller & Auditor General):</span><b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> “There is a deep conceptual but simply
identified flaw in government accounting which must be costing billions and is
creating uncontrolled debt”.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;">1 That accountability is in the hands of recipients of
public funds is the cause of the failure of the (European court of auditors) to
sign off the accounts. “They never will until this is addressed.”</span></i><span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt;"> This is not so much a
suggestion of corrupt practices, though it may be, but saying that there is no
outcome feedback. That applies equally in UK though since 2009 there has been
feedback into WGA Whole Government Accounts but with the resulting
consolidation taking up to a useless 14 months. It was intended that by 2010 comparative
budget values would be incorporated but that has not happened.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">2 <i>The IMF has just been criticised
by its ‘independent examiner’ for its role in the Greek crisis and failure to
grasp that currency unions require treasury and political union or are vastly
exposed to debt crises</i>. In other words
the budget must be resourced and achievable as seen at the time. The
same very clearly goes for the UK sterling area. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">3 There is lack of information
on which to vote in that in UK the universal franchise has not yet extended to
formal accountability. </span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">“Accountability” needs information
to inform the required decision. For government it only so far means exposure
to election. There is no systematic feedback to MPs as deputed by the cabinet
(?) or via the DCLG (Dept. of Communities & Local Government), or to
residents by Annual Report. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The recognition of
need is present but is neutered by an expressed general feeling, particularly
in the treasury of insurmountable complexity. In fact the right drivers would
come from an immediately instituted Cabinet agenda spot served by regular
Report in standard format. The Cabinet Secretary would need to ‘believe’ and
CFO and ministers put ‘on the spot’ in turn. The initial absence of the data for
key-figures would stimulate system upgrading. Then the evolutionary process
would take care of ‘deep-reaching’ improvement to a wide range of government
activities, tax simplification and so on all prompted by the new dialogue from
the top. Savings would be in billions with true Value for Money .<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">.2nd February 2017<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-66660694408197020312016-11-15T13:42:00.000-08:002016-11-23T22:04:56.468-08:00THE CASE FOR FORMAL ACCOUNTABILITY<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The Annual Report </span></b><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">– with
references to and experience of Surrey County Council and boroughs.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 18.0pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">WHY
ACCOUNT? (</span><i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">This
excludes Management Accounting until a reference in the closing paragraph</span></i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">1.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In
every walk of life we join together in proprietorial groups with varying
activities and purposes. Whether it be a tennis club or plc it will be governed
for good order and inter-party relations by rules or a constitution. Varying degrees
of prescriptive law apply. Structures are organised and by ancient
necessity we elect or appoint from amongst ourselves or hire others to run the
show. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">2.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Given
this delegation we retain control by long established formal accountability for
stewardship and renewal. Normally there is an annual heartbeat with a <b>discharge</b> by <b>Annual Report, </b>a narrative with facts, to account for decisions
taken with explanations of intentions, <b>and
renewal</b> by (re)election. Government doesn’t yet embrace this only
comparatively recently having evolved out of
feudal society, traces of which remain, and granted the incompletely
installed universal franchise.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">3.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">We
all became the funders of an always growing interventionist State which tries
to govern, by whipping,<b> </b>through tribal political Party ‘secret
society’ association and influence which has no legal right to exist. This tends
to usurp the proprietorial group structures and electoral process. </span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">We are ill-served in this respect. </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">4.<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Efforts to persuade local authorities, concentrating on Surrey County
Council, to comply with the spirit of accountability have failed. That is in
spite of that sprit being behind much legislation and best practice. I have,
via my MP, sought direction on standards
from the NAO, who referred me to the Electoral Commission. They in turn
gave me a named contact in the Cabinet
Office. Eventually after administrative cock-up the matter was said to be with
their constitution group. From there – nothing. I submitted at their invitation
to the House of Commons Inquiry into Voter Engagement which terminated only
with <i>registration</i> having so far found
but not recommended for <b>–“Lack of belief in the meaning of elections as
they are presented; Poor voter turnout is not due to apathy but lack of awareness and information on which
to vote; dissatisfaction with politicians, political
parties and UK politics”.</b> </span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">An
appeal to the Local Government Ombudsman against the council’s refusal to
address the Report to residents has also met with: “This matter affects all or
most of the residents within the council’s area and is outside the Ombudsman’s
jurisdiction”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">5<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Surrey
County Council has recently started to produce an Annual Report. That for
2015-16 is exemplary. But undemocratic Party supremacy seems to be behind a
refusal to communicate it to the electorate most of whom don’t know of its
existence, or more importantly, if they do what is its purpose. </span><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In
fact we have again the crazy result that for 2016-17, the period ending before
the election it will, without a swifter timetable or delay in election date, <b>be withheld until after the council
elections. <o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">SOME ASPECTS AND IMPLICATIONS with the Surrey
Report in view<b><span style="color: red;">.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">6<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">An
example of activity change: helpful reference was made <u>in context</u> to
the bed unblocking policy of the new re-ablement service which I have
personally experienced but knew nothing about as a ‘shareholder’</span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">7<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It
is the natural <b>vehicle for compulsory disclosures</b>
or links to data. By definition they must be made <b><u>to </u></b>someone.</span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">8<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Financial
matters are reported on and explained. <b>Surrey
CC is insolvent</b> due to the pension deficit, a matter of direct consequence
to taxpayers.</span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">9<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Allowed
its intended function greatly reduced <b>FOI
and “transparency” burdens</b> on staff would undoubtedly follow. </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">10<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Under
the dubious cloak of “transparency” we are offered access to quantities of
internal working documentation, but <b>how can
we tell the time from a clock in pieces ?</b></span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">11<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Criminally
in 2009 election year the devastatingly critical <b>Frater Report </b>(<i>see
website page</i>) was deliberately withheld by the councillors.</span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">12<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">It
is said that “ interest in such documents is likely to be limited to a very
small minority…” . That is a lazy and decadent thought which categorises
electorate classes. The point is <b>not the
degree of interest but the placing of responsibility for being informed</b> by
the giving of due notice. “…Those parties interested in………” are not able to
apply if unaware. </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">13<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Council
refusal to address all residents is on the lame excuse of <b>distribution cost</b> which could, where
the internet doesn’t serve, with a ‘can do’ attitude be funded by income
(<i>cover charge and/or sponsorship</i>?)</span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">14<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">As a private sector shareholder I must by law be accounted to and must
give consent to receive the Annual Report electronically. Either as shareholder
or resident voter my equity interest is identical . My preference has often
been to check that the audit report is 'clean' and then perhaps leave it at
that. There have been Surrey cases of <b>qualified
reports as just one of many <u>reportable</u> matters of concern but invisible
to we resident voters about councillors’ behaviour and performance in their
managerial role on our behalf (</b><i>see 11
above</i><b>). </b></span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">15<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #333333; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">They
quote legal ‘small print’ which is said to place the process with the council. Councillors
thereby <b>exclude us to deny our
democratic rights</b>, and responsibilities, and allows councillor conflict of
interest.</span><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">16<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Once elected
to the Council they become r</span><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">esponsible for the running of
the enterprise. The electorate should be able to <b>judge performance and competence</b>. In the absence of formal
accountability I am not equipped to vote in local elections and publicly say
so.</span><b><span style="color: red; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">HOW DOES THIS ALL FIT IN TO CENTRAL
AND CURRENCY ZONE CONTROL ?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 39.3pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">17<span style="font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN" style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Local authorities could be regarded <b>as accountable to central government and not
resident taxpaying voters.</b> But that is not so, a matter of an identified
costly and uncontrollable debt generating Europe-wide system flaw subject to needed further development
of WGA (<i>Whole Government consolidated Accounts</i>) and WGB (<i>budgets</i>).
I have submitted deep probing questions via my MP about this backed by very
high level evidence to the C&AG and PAC. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
</div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-32828228249877973412016-09-08T07:03:00.000-07:002016-12-04T08:15:54.163-08:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">GOVERNMENT
ACCOUNTING IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">Because
politicians seem to prefer it that way<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Running
the country is not what they like doing. They want to be allowed to use pretend
money, some of it tax and some borrowed, without thought for tomorrow. It is
hoped that that will take care of itself because of “the economy” at least for
the immediate electoral period.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="color: #c00000; font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">The fatal
flaw</span></b><span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"> is summed up for
the Eurozone and sterling area by an MEP in 2008 who said:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;">“ The chances of the EU meeting the entirely proper demands of the nine
taxpayers alliances are close to zero. On Monday, we heard yet again from the
Court of Auditors a catalogue of good intentions wholly unequal to stopping the
misplaced flow of billions of euros. The EU has been shifting the deckchairs on
this particular Titanic for years. It stays afloat largely because of public
indifference to the waste of their taxes. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 14.0pt;">#<b>The concept of “shared management”, which
leaves accountability in the hands of recipients of public funds, is not widely
understood. Yet it is the cause of the failure of the court to sign off the
accounts for the past 14 years. They never will until this is addressed.”</b></span><b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 21.3pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And
reported of the IMF in 2016:</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> failure to grasp that currency unions require
treasury and political union or are vastly exposed to debt crises. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">And for the UK sterling area and its devolution
method cf the unforeseen accumulating Scottish deficit (£15bn in 2015-16)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">Government
adopts cash and borrowing orientation whereas management accounting also reflects
and supports the organisation structure in which it is employed. It works with the
500 year old accruals (double entry) basis of transaction date and period
without which large organisations cannot delegate/devolve authority while
retaining control. Setting budgets from committed plans is part of that. Such
a financial system is not complete
without a constantly updated scoreboard
reflecting upward reporting for re-direction and plan updating.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">In
what way do governments think they can manage otherwise ? Where is the relationship,
contractual/constitutional and operational difference between any central
government or currency zone and an international multi-product conglomerate ?
Governments round Europe are beginning to come round to this but this issue of public
finance management is seldom met in media and public discourse. All the learned
political economics concentrates on “the economy” and esoteric questions of
money printing and quantitive easing, both of which have bad side effects.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;">And "One of our interviewees (of Anthony King and Ivor Crewe in 2013-14 <i>The Blunders of our governments</i> p309), after a long and wide-ranging discussion, said there was one important issue we had not raised. "what was that?" we asked. "The Treasury", he replied. He blamed the Treasury for almost all of Britain's ills dating back over many decades and wondered aloud why an organisation that had presided for so long over such a poor economic performance was still held in such high esteem. The short answer may be that, at least within Whitehall it is less esteemed than feared." </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "arial" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-5002708261537317262016-01-09T06:37:00.001-08:002016-01-13T02:10:14.323-08:00FLAWED GOVERNMENT the case of Surrey County Council<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">As</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> of
January 2016 Surrey County Council does not understand the FOI question “To
whom, for what and how is it accountable”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The answer has been given in the form of
references to its Constitution which is necessarily and effectively the Council
routinely talking to itself. Article 1
says ”The council will exercise all its powers and duties in accordance with
the law and this Constitution”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There is also Article 3 which is entitled THE
PUBLIC AND THE COUNCIL and sets out all the access rights and boundaries
appertaining to that undefined class but not it’s interest. There is no
reference to Council reporting responsibility outwards towards central
government, taxpaying voting residents and other identifiable classes served.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Stakeholders apart that responsibilty would cover reporting to provide the feedback necessary to establish
that requirements of law and policy have been carried out so that policy can be
adjusted if necessary, executive action is informed and resource disposition is
changed if necessary. For stakeholders the purpose is to account for discharge and renewal, for (re)election of representatives, and for any other business.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">In every situation there is a superior
authority. Wellington’s victory at
Waterloo and Nelson’s at Trafalgar required
a despatch. Battle of Britain pilots returned to a debriefing. The RSCH Trust
lays its Annual Report before Parliament; that document covers not just the financial
but all aspects.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To some undefined degree we the people are the
superior authority but whether as local residents or citizens of the Nation is
not clear. Is the County Council accountable via the Centre or to local voters
directly ?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">7.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">It
is already officially established that there is a lack of belief in the meaning
of elections as they are presented and
that poor voter turnout is not due to apathy but lack of awareness and
information on which to vote.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="background: rgb(254, 253, 250); margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">8.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-weight: normal;">
</span></span></b><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">At present we are asked only to vote for people
to represent us for no clear reason and without conventional supporting
evidence. But the undersigned’s representative on Surrey County Council refused
to answer, with the support of the Monitoring Officer and Audit & Governance
Committee, invited fed-back questions on the Annual Report 2014-15. That same
Annual Report was not targetted at stakeholders though so addressed. That for
2016-17 will be held back until just after the 2017 election. Yet Council
Leadership can see nothing wrong with that and has no suitable answer to the
FOI question at 1 above.</span><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-1870815489863378092015-07-12T05:03:00.000-07:002015-07-15T02:16:56.187-07:00<b><span style="color: #cc0000;">AND NOW THERE IS GREECE - Government accounting is now really found wanting.</span></b><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is a lot of news going on. Roger Federer reaches new heights
in the Wimbledon Men’s Singles, England roundly defeat Australia with a day to
spare to start the home Ashes series. The Chinese stock market crashes
(relatively). Then there is Greece and the Eurozone. This goes beyond all else for historically profound significance in peacetime. Yet the circumstances are commonplace in 'real' life. </span>It is at last sinking in that countries are no different from households and businesses when it comes to financial health. The eurozone has to manage itself as if a global industrial conglomerate and Greece a subsidiary company.<br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This weekend the European
authorities have to decide whether and how to rescue that country from
bankruptcy when they don’t trust the competence and commitment of the Greek
government with an unsustainable total debt and faced with popular but induced uncomprehending
vote to “end austerity”. The very real and present disaster is with them already
because the banks have run out of money and all trade and other transactions
are at a standstill. Famine stalks the streets. The IMF has now in effect said we won't touch Greece with a bargepole. Once again it’s the poor wot
suffers.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yet
no country has a ‘top of the range’ financial system and only 14 nations do
balance sheets according to the IMF. Europe has failed its audit for some 20
years. Only since 2009 has UK produced ‘proper
accounts’ which are heavily qualified by the auditors and these are said to
lead the field. What is so terrifyingly odd is that the ‘powers that be’ don’t
know what a financial system looks like and why such an out-of-date situation
is so avoidably dangerous. The penny hasn’t dropped yet with the high-flown
economists and political scientists.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
chair of CIPFA international (Chartered
Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) tells it like it is but even he seems to be trying not to offend and lacking full technical appreciation<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/My%20Documents/STAG/Draftblogs%20govt%20accounting3.doc#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
. Why “net worth” ? UK isn’t for sale is it ? Or perhaps Ian Ball has in mind
content and presentation of loan applications. Again, he uses that anaemic word
“transparency” as a purpose. That purpose should be, looking ahead, to continuously produce management
and operating data in standard conventional format in as nearly as possible
real time to be taken together with feedback to prompt re-direction and ‘touches
on the tiller’.</span></div>
<div>
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<br />
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/Administrator/My%20Documents/STAG/Draftblogs%20govt%20accounting3.doc#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-GB"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">CIPFA International chair Ian Ball has urged
governments across the world to use balance sheets and accrual accounting to
improve the transparency of their public finances. July 2015.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Speaking at
CIPFA’s International seminar today, Ball
said the challenge was to get all governments to use these methods as the basis
for financial management and budgetary decisions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The publication of
public sector balance sheets was “going back into favour” as a measure and could be used as a measure of
government’s “net worth”, he told delegates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">“However I would
say they are not back in favour in that senior policymakers and politicians are
not using them for their decision-making. I think that is the next step.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">This would be
implemented by all governments, Ball added, as the public finances could not be
managed properly unless governments thought about how the decisions it makes
impact on its net worth.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">“The net worth is
the much better measure of the government’s fiscal position – but people don’t
talk about it in these terms because
most governments don’t have that information.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">“And if you want
to do an international comparison like the Org for Economic Co-Operation and Development
and the IMF would do, you can’t do that because it isn’t shown. The IMF said in
its latest report that 14 governments had provided it with a balance sheet, but
you need more than 50% compliance.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">He did acknowledge,
however, that governments in some parts of the world – particularly Latin
America and Africa – were promoting good governance and accrual accounting,
such as Brazil and Tanzania.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">The use of balance
sheets also allowed policy plans to be matched against outcomes, he said.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">“For example when
we see the UK budget this week I would like to see a forecast set of financial statements.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">“(This way) we can
look at the end-of-year WGA and say how do they compare with the budget we saw
at the beginning of the year.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">In addition Ball
highlighted the importance of having qualified Chief Finance officers to make
the system run smoothly both in departments of government and at the centre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10.0pt;">“There needs to be a very strong financial management function
in the treasury”., he concluded. “in a way the test is when that is integrated
in into the budgetary decision-making process. The people who look at the
budget have got to be a team with
accounting and economic skills”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-18702660863277496542015-02-19T05:12:00.001-08:002015-02-19T05:12:37.779-08:00VOTER ENGAGEMENT and ACCOUNTABILITY<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This is the third
submission to the </span><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">POLITICAL
AND CONSTITUTIONAL INQUIRY<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">By
Peter Webb, FCA retired, Romilly Cottage, 139 Binscombe Godalming Surrey GU7
3QL, 01483 425385; </span><a href="mailto:peter@pgwebb.com"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">peter@pgwebb.com</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <b>following the</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">REPORT ON VOTER ENGAGEMENT IN UK<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It follows Edward Faulkner’s personal
invitation by email dated 23<sup>rd</sup> December 2014 which admitted that</span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> transparency
and accountability of government are not issues the Committee considered to a
great extent in their interim report. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -28.15pt; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">THE STORY SO FAR<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Report
discovers <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lack of <b>belief
in the meaning of elections</b> as they are presented. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Poor voter turnout is not due to apathy but <b>lack of awareness and information on which</b>
<b>to vote.</b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 1.0cm; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“<b>Dissatisfaction with
politicians, political parties and UK politics</b>”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">My first and second submissions give my status and
qualification. This one amplifies analysis and known solutions.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Firstly we
can conclude that government fails to service voters in the established way of
doing things but which it nevertheless expects from those subject to its laws
and good practice. A cause would seem to be tardy evolution of governance during
growing prosperity allowing lack of stringency. The archaic Treasury is the
weakest link (paragraph 34), with the top civil service need of re-skilling and
reform dependent in turn on enlightened and insightful political leadership direction.
This paper proceeds in logical sequence through the Report’s findings above and
concludes with an illustrative parable with “guidance notes”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">BELIEF AND MEANING<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I will vote
for “none of the above” while my vote can be taken to legitimize government by ‘secret
society’ with its risks of totalitarianism. Rights of association and
networking notwithstanding Democracy is not served by an organised and
disciplined political party populating Parliament
and organs of the State when it is not itself
accountable, and is unconcerned about governance and managerial competence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 24.6pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">4.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We the people
are now the paramount authority as ‘shareholders’. This has not always been the
case. To choose or support someone with our precious vote we need assured information.
This needs consideration of <b>the ‘by
whom, to whom, for what and how’ of accountability.<o:p></o:p></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">5.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Constitutional
and operational evolution has not kept pace in that there is no complete organogram
for the <b>hierarchy of accountability,
direction and feedback </b>(<i>cf European
and UK audit failure</i>). That condition persists with <b>fiscal discipline being seen apparently as an optional choice rather
than a necessity</b>. Antiquated accounting means that domestic government is
ill-equipped for control, forward planning, policy formation and implementation<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">6.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A very
current piece of evidence is the survey by ICAEW and PwC of 10,000 Europeans
finding that only one in five feel that their government provides them with
sufficient information about the state of public finances. <b><span style="color: red;">“There is a wide crisis of confidence …in their
governments’ ability to manage public finances</span></b>, 70% wanted more
action ….to reduce the debts of their countries”. There is little understanding
among the general public and “despite the introduction of whole of government
accounts” UK came fourth in that regard. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ENGAGEMENT<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">7.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Having placed
voters within geographical and/or constitutional boundaries and located them
then if engagement is to happen it is necessary to, well……</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">engage</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. This means addressing them with a question supported
by facts and inviting an answer or result.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">8.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For this
purpose these are three types of question:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That seeking
a specific single answer such as “do you wish for Scottish independence, yes or
no?”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That seeking
periodic approval and democratic renewal such as “do you approve of what we
have done and do you authorise my/our continuation in office?” Note that it is
easy to stipulate that abstention is to be either a vote of confidence, or not,
once notice is given and received.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That seeking
support for system change such as “do you wish to vote for X or Y for the new
position of Police Commissioner?” Comment: <i>it
is reasonable to ask what difference that change makes beyond needing more
support bureaucracy, and bearing in mind that no change in accountability has
taken place only it’s routing within an overall but disorganised hierarchy. </i><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">LACK OF AWARENESS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">9.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">People will be unaware unless their attention is
sought</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">. <b>Proper NOTICE </b>with purposeful agenda is
missing. Fulfilment by posted voting card might be sufficient constructive
communication if expanded to state: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level3 lfo4; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In a sentence
what we are summoned/invited to vote for as well as who.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level3 lfo4; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A list of official
documentation given in evidence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level3 lfo4; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Hard copy
pick up points (<i>and cover price?) </i>and
electronic links for downloading. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l4 level3 lfo4; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Wingdings; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Wingdings; mso-fareast-font-family: Wingdings;">§<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Personal CVs
including such as political Party affiliation could be included in this
process. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.45pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">10.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Suggested
wording, having defined who is accountable to whom in the total government
hierarchy is as follows: “I am the appointed/elected leader of your xxxxxx.
Here for each of our entitled recipients is our formal Report on how we have
performed on our planned objectives outlined a year ago, including facts and
disclosures required by law and best practice and with statements about the outlook and immediate plans”. Then
for elected bodies: “At the forthcoming
election on xxxx you are invited to elect a candidate to represent you. In so
doing, or placing your X in the box “none of the above”, you will be indicating
approval or otherwise of the content of the Report and authorising
continuation, or otherwise”.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 24.6pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">INFORMATION ON WHICH TO VOTE <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">11.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">See above and
below. For elections for democratic approval and renewal the conventional prime
functioning document is the <b>Annual
Report </b>which is already defined by government for government use. Its
timeliness is important with each day of delay in publication to addressees
wastefully reducing its value. It makes no sense for local Annual Reports, when
produced, for the period ending before the election to become available weeks
after the election. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">DIS-SATISFACTION WITH POLITICS<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">12.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">That may
extend to the <b>outdated nature of domestic
public decision-m</b>aking, organisational and reporting hierarchy and formal
communications. If a politician’s wish for “vibrant (local) democracy” means
passionate but poorly informed argument without executive conclusion then it
needs to be challenged.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">13.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is
undoubtedly <b>mistrust</b> now of the
‘Establishment’ by the people. Communicated information of a trustworthy and
politically unspun nature would help alleviate this. Real mistrust is engendered
by the example at paragraph 32.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">14.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It is also
noticeable that <b>much duplication and
wasteful activity</b> is built in to the system in order to protect us from
politics. A perfect example is the creation of the “independent” OBR (Office of
Budget Responsibility) to by-pass an archaic and demonstrably deficient Treasury.
Another example of muddled thinking is given at paragraph 33.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">15.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The question,
for your Committee perhaps, is <b>whether
politics is now fit for purpose for decision-making and control</b>. If “all is
politics” as the air we breathe then we should move on and think managerially.
We understand that limited resource allocation is difficult but inconclusive
partisan argument is wasteful of time, effort and money. Perhaps government now
needs its own professional leadership cadre.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">16.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Belief in
elections can be restored by the above measures and adaptation to them because
feedback, if formalised, would suggest evolutionary amendments to the process
and of course to the quality of governance. These are surely ongoing concerns
for your Committee? The Ship of State has no Chief Engineer – Systems.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">THE
PARABLE OF THE SAFARI PARK<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">17.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is a giant safari park in this country.
It contains prehistoric animals (</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">political
governors<i>) attended by primitive tribes </i>(Party people<i>), still
hard-wired for killing strangers from the other side of the forest, led by
Chief Ponzi and Chief Madoff. There are guides and invisible in the background
are groundsmen and servants (</i>civil servants<i>). Visitors and sightseers
are welcome on pain of taxation.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">18.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Every so often visitors can assemble in the
clearing to watch and pretend to take part in a Ritual (</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">election<i>). Formalised games are played and a
tribesman is chosen as winner according to the colour of the adornment they
wear. Some wear red feathers round their waist, some blue feathers in their
headdress. Why? Its origin is lost but it is fun.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">19.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A visitor asks “how do they know when to
assemble for the Ritual?“ A great cry
goes up from the governors in their long house which tribespeople just know is
The Call. They wait for the sun to rise seven times and on the 8<sup>th</sup>
day they come together.” Came the day when dawn was inconvenient so they all
stood about until the sun’s shadow was at its shortest. <o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">20.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It was thanks to a visitor (</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the man from the Taxpayers Alliance<i>) that they
were introduced to the idea of the clock. So now they have all been presented
with a little bag full of tiny metal shapes and pieces of glinting gem-like
things (</i>spending details on line<i>). This they were assured would tell the
time and keep them amused and be a great step forward for mankind. But it
didn’t, it didn’t, and it wasn’t.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">21.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The governors hit on the idea of rule by TLA
(three letter acronym) and changed the Counting House to the OBI (Office of
Budget Irresponsibility)(</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Treasury)<i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">22.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Governors were troubled when their people
grew up, became restless and began to ask questions. “What do you do that we
should dance for you and bow down in the ritual? “ “What happened to those
promises made earlier?” “Why is your music not rhythmic and harmonious (</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">method and systems<i>)?” “What do you do with the
tax money?” “How is it that the water (</i>money<i>) hole is empty?” “We’ve
done the rain dance (</i>the economy<i>) for you and we’re knackered.” “Why
should we vote for you again?”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">23.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On the verge of extinction the governors
heard at the back of the group of tourists the words “what you must do is to
prepare for the Ritual with a nourishing feast (</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Annual Report)<i> that will satisfy all those
hungry questions!” But they weren’t listening because busy trying to work out
why the clock pieces wouldn’t tell the time: they debated what the time might
be without executive conclusion; the economists looked for statistical
correlations between the metal shapes and gem-like things inside the
clock-case; and the Party people believed they knew best what the time was. The
accountants assembled the clock, waited to be asked what the time was and why
it wasn’t something else, and announce what it would be 10 minutes hence and
whether that would be a good time to dance. A tiny group in the Counting House
were not allowed to simplify tax because someone believed complexity to be job-creating
and necessary for “fairness” of punishment. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">EXPLANATORY NOTES FOR GUIDES (</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Comment
and explanation<i>)<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">24.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It seems to be outside
government’s mind-set to deal in information communicated for a purpose when it
comes to its democratic responsibilities to its citizens for stewardship,
service performance, and explanation of managerial objectives and so on, and
electoral renewal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">25.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Politicians
piously profess<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><b>transparency</b><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>and open government. But that is a qualitative attitude
and passive. It too often means only access to lifeless and historical
mass data. It has no primary operational point, only
secondary availability for academic research or statistical purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 24.6pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 12.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">26.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Accountability</span></b><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">on the other hand, which is professed but not
practiced by government, is an act of discharge or formal process for a
purpose. It is for a chairman, leader, group leader or other proposer to
support with evidence and organised data the formation of policy and
operational decision. That embraces the total management control system and
also democratic discharge and renewal. At root is the transaction which once
executed is not informative in isolation. All the Authorities, laws, customs
and so on have long defined and prescribed how constitutionally governed bodies
should go about this, pulsing annually. Government exempts itself.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">27.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Electoral <b>periodicity</b> does not align with all
other <u>connecting</u> ‘heartbeats’, for Parliament, reporting, budgeting and
accounting and so on which are usually annual. Moreover untimely information
grows misleading and wasteful by the day. Examples are WGAs (Whole of
Government Accounts) and the inherently ridiculous performance of local
authorities stated in 11 above.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">28.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">According to
correspondence via my MP Rt.Hon. Jeremy Hunt it is now ruled by the Secretary
of State, Communities and Local Government that the Annual Report should
not be delivered because “unsolicited” nor should it coincide with elections to
inform voters. Is the council tax invoice with its tax calculation detail unsolicited?
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">29.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He goes on to say
that “openness and transparency in decision-making is important. That is why
Government has required councils to put details of their spending on-line.”
“Council publicity must ensure that the public are kept informed, but must be
proportionate and cost-effective”. But no data is ‘active’ for this purpose
unless communicated. <b>The detail of line
by line spending is akin to the notch on stick method of counting which
preceded the invention of the balance sheet in 1492 (does government know ?).</b>
It doesn’t inform and is therefore not cost-effective. Potholes don’t happen in
parcels of £500 nor get filled by let alone costed as individual payments.
Since 1492 accountancy has evolved as a tool in keeping with needs. <i>Cost</i>
and <i>Management Accounting</i> (CIMA is the professional body) are terms
still not yet much in evidence in the government lexicon. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">30.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is much
information and data which as voters we would be confused by and <b>don’t need however “transparent” </b>because
we are not and cannot be the deciders and operational users.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">31.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Under current
permissive law <b>the Annual Report can be
delivered electronically</b> provided the entitled recipient has given consent.
The document must include those matters and disclosures required by law such as
senior pay scales and much more ( to government inexplicably a separate
novelty), but can be split so that an abbreviated version becomes with links a
gateway to the more detailed data.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">32.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As reported in the
Telegraph on 31<sup>st</sup> December a Surrey local authority has admitted
that six of its elected members have not paid their council tax for three
years. Voters are not allowed to know who they are and judge the financial
management competence risk yet other
non-payers are pursued even to the Courts<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 24.6pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">33.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A news report
(27<sup>th</sup> December 2014) is revealing: “<b><i>Town Halls must spend their £21bn
stash, says Pickles”</i></b> referring to the figure (£21bn) of reserves
“produced by the Office of Budget Responsibility”. He is talking about reserves
which are created by over-providing (in council tax) for expenditure in a later
period (not many people know that….it is profit by another name). There are
these implications:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 60.6pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The source of
the information is the OBR whereas the Treasury is supposed to be the National
Government’s Financial Department. The latter has only recently started proper
Accounts the probable factual source.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 60.6pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He is
interfering in and second-guessing local financial judgement for which he is
not accountable to the local residents concerned.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 60.6pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l5 level1 lfo6; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These
reserves in aggregate affect the amount of national debt and deficit yet he is
not exercising strategic managerial leadership at the level of his Department’s
overall responsibility, except accidentally.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background: #FEFDFA; line-height: 13.65pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">34.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; line-height: normal;">
</span></span></i><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It is by no
means assured that current reform of the civil service recognises that the
archaic Treasury is the weakest link. </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Julian Kelly is
the new Director General of public spending and finance and the <i>Review of financial management in government
</i>is not yet in force<i>. </i>Mr Kelly is not
apparently to be alongside the new Chief Executive John Manzoni in cabinet and
the ICAEW (Chartered Accountants) says “.the appointment…does not go far
enough”. What are his chances when:<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 42.55pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">“<i>One of our
interviewees (of Anthony king and Ivor Crewe in 2013-14 The Blunders of our
governments p309), after a long and wide ranging discussion, said there was one
important issue we had not raised. “What was that ?” we asked. “The Treasury”,
he replied. He blamed the Treasury for almost all of Britain’s ills dating back
over many decades and wondered aloud why an organisation that had presided for
so long over such poor economic performance was still held in such high esteem.
The short answer may be that, at least within Whitehall it is less esteemed
than feared.”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 42.55pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo5; text-align: justify; text-indent: 0cm;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt;">·<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">“The
archaically named Treasury is demonstrably 50 years out of date, operationally
illiterate and backward in its accounting and financial management”</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;"> (Peter Webb to
first Lord of Treasury 13<sup>th</sup> June 2013, <i>Who will mend UK government</i> ?)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -28.15pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="background: #FEFDFA; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.3pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-line-height-alt: 13.65pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: 3.3pt;">
<!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">35.<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal;">
</span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Therefore the
absence of an Annual Report to citizens time aligned for elections is a
negligent omission on the part of out-of-date government as has been weak
financial management. The manifesto and Queen’s speech commitment might
usefully include actions for BETTER GOVERNMENT.<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: -28.15pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 315.0pt; margin-right: -28.15pt; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">6<sup>th</sup> January 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-71655369268202655362014-11-17T03:34:00.003-08:002014-11-18T08:58:03.666-08:00DEVOLVED FUNDING - POLITICIANS DON'T FIND THE WAY<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The
Scottish independence saga has provoked urgency to the English devolution question.
Centralised government breakdown calls for decentralisation. Politicians know
what they want to achieve but are not good at doing it according to published
evidence of costly implementation blunders (<i>King
and Crewe</i>). There is “dissatisfaction with politicians, political parties
and UK politics”. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">Local
funding is high on the list of blundering failure over decades of wasted inquiry,
change, implementation and operational failure. For decentralisation to work new
insights and ways of working must be found if the public finances are not to finally
drain away along with political competence.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">At
present all local spending and ‘local’ tax is part of the totality of public finance and recorded as such. This requires central
management from the top. Yet is only very recently that consolidated accounting
has been introduced WGAs (<i>Whole of
Government Accounts</i>). These are defective for the same reason that the
European Accounts have failed their audit for 19 years to date and are so late
as to be unhelpful to the OBR (<i>Office of
Budget Responsibility</i>). For example: funds voted are left to be managed by
recipients without feedback to the centre which control requires. <b>Controlled decentralisation does not however
require detailed centralised control of local decisions and activities</b>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It
is said that local people must contribute to their local area with local’
taxes. They already do with council tax, business rates, VAT and income tax. It
is said that people ought to be able to identify ‘local’ council tax payment
with local needs and spending but mixed revenue flows prevent this allowing the
unaccountable ‘loony left’ to ignite a general explosion in spending over recent years. The corresponding
explosion in council tax around 2003, when raised with councillors, produced
the ‘nothing to do with me guv’ syndrome. Over-riding central reaction had to
be the council tax ‘cap’ which in its various forms continues but now accompanied
by reducing central funding.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">It
is said that under those conditions there is local accountability. That is
self-evidently false and efforts in the future to go down that route with local
income taxes, sales taxes and so on will decentralise bureaucracy at great
operating cost without achieving anything like the desired result. The present
hybrid system is a perfect demonstration of a compromise too far. In reality
the local unit is accountable for its performance, with public funds, not its
tax calculation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The
main method flaw causing the muddle is “equalisation”. This is redistribution
as a secondary process to cross-subsidise regions according to formulaic grant
calculations of needs and differences not locally determined nor catered for in
the primary taxation system. There is the suggestion, by the LGA <i>(Local Government Authority</i>) who badly
want the present arrangements changed, that this should be replaced by another,
supposedly ‘independent’ central body, again detached from local needs. That would
change nothing and would still not allow for genuine inter-area transfers which
are a necessary part of any sovereign state arrangements. It incidentally also
seems from information received that the LGA is also still wedded to ‘no
representation without taxation’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">There
is only one way that wished-for local autonomy can be provided so as to go ‘off
balance sheet’ or privatise - call it what you will. A constituted body run by
elected representatives must raise its own revenue and be allowed to borrow
only on the guarantee of its own people. There are ‘off the shelf’
pricing/subscription methods and existing ‘tax bases’ in the form of electoral
registers and residencies. There is also on government record a simple to
administer ‘automatic’ method given to Sir Michael Lyons for his Inquiry for drawing from central taxation which would
work well, and indeed become necessary, once WGBs (<i>Whole of Government Budgets</i>) are operated as intended. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">In
any case there needs to be clear organisation and flow charts both for
decision-levels and accountability. For example a Police Authority can
source funds from and be accountable to
EITHER a central government specified place or a local authority which in turn
can EITHER be accountable upwards (as in the NHS) or to local electors. LEPs <i>(Local Enterprise Partnerships</i>) are not
accountable anywhere. The form of routine accountability to owners is specified
in legislation and best practice but not ‘delivered’ by government. It is also
necessary for devolved bodies to have the right to either refuse to observe
central dictats or negotiate a price for carrying out activities not necessary
to meet their own objectives. Conversely a central government body should be
able to charge a local body for such as standard-setting advice. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Arial",sans-serif;">The
‘joker in the pack’ in this and failure to solve the problem before now can be laid
at the door of hidebound politicians, political scientists and economists and
more specifically the Treasury which is out of date and has not evolved as in
Industry to a position of influence in ‘how to do’ management infrastructure
and systems. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-35714246907229498802014-09-29T12:58:00.002-07:002014-10-06T11:17:01.667-07:00<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: large;">Government isn’t very good at </span></b><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif";"><span style="font-size: large;">balancing the books</span><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">If you want to show your ignorance and upset his
feelings call an accountant a bean
counter. Then, as government does, turn to the
economist.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Governments favour economists for their magic with
statistics. Apparently skirt length is correlated with the incidence of breast
cancer, or on a much more dangerous level tax and benefit policy is correlated
with conveniently optimistic forecasts of the “economy” or GDP (defined in note
1).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 11.35pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">And
what do you get ?… not only <i>“is government’s
view of its operations obscured”</i> (</span><span style="font-size: 9.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Economy and Efficiency
Board member</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">) but the ‘enterprise’ is loss-making requiring borrowing increasingly from outside the country. Each in-year deficit adds to the accumulating debt. Interest on this debt threatens to engulf spending departments. Moreover
the ease with which tax can be <b>taken</b>, money <b>borrowed</b> and <b>money
printed</b> leads to “moral hazard” and </span><span style="font-family: "Blackadder ITC"; font-size: 16.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">sloppy</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"> administration …which is what we have got: waste,
poor decision-making and antiquated systems, compounded
by ‘limited liability’ on a change of government. There is unrest under the weight of the
Westminster/Whitehall government machinery which 8 years ago was said by a
civil servant whistleblower to be breaking down “and no-one knows what to do
about it”. No-one at the top in Whitehall seems to be telling our leaders what
it is that they should be asking for to correct this. No-one seems to understand that financial control is about KNOWING what is happening. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Accountancy
is not about keeping a tally, or just record-keeping. The evolutionary steps
have been: n</span><span lang="EN-GB">otches
on a stick led to a shortage of firewood and resort to quill and single column
ledger. In 1492 came what many historians agree as a milestone in human
history: Luca Paciola invented the beautifully simple double-entry
book-keeping. It provides self-checking (the total of the column on the window
side must equal that of the column on the door side) – not only what have I
paid but who do I owe. The balance sheet was born.</span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Readers of Hilary Mantel’s <i>Wolf Hall</i> set in the XVIth century have met Thomas Cromwell’s accountant
experiencing the joy of balancing the books. Our government does’nt balance the
books and is so ill-equipped believes it easier to go “off balance sheet” with
PFI contracts. We all feel the pain of those, both in cost consequences and later
as part of the newly accounted for total debt ! <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Next
came a shortage of candles for the nocturnal shift and burning at both ends
(even then). It was insufficient to keep the ‘book’ as for the ‘guvnor’ King
alone. With the rise of credit the employment of</span><span lang="EN-GB"> other peoples’ money, required stewardship accounting. With credit came larger enterprises with owners needing
managerial tools. Money becomes a very convenient unit of measurement as well
as a resource. Delegation of responsibility required planning/budgetary
control. ‘What has happened’ becomes basis the for modelling ‘what will happen if ?’ Accountancy joined other
numerate disciplines eg Operational Research (project management techniques, common
sense and mathematical solutions for resource deployment and optimization)
and other aids to purposeful thought for example MBO (Management by Objectives).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB">The resulting Total System
concept aided by IT reflects the merging of the dynamics of time and events
with action and feedback, like the moving pointer on a dial in a vehicle
dashboard. Transactions and simulations add up to the continuous total system. It
is the basis for all or any information reports as by-products to interested
parties eg decision-makers and taxpayers (eventually).
It needs the rotation of data and reaction to become as close together in time as
possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 11.35pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 11.35pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The
evidence of the cinderella status of financial discipline in government is
clear<b>. </b>There is a flaw at the heart of UK government: <i>feedback</i> is missing from ‘feedback and
control’. It is the same flaw which for 19 years has caused the European
accounts to fail their audit because, as identified by an MEP, money voted to
recipients is left to be managed only by recipients. In UK <i>Whole
of Government Accounts</i> (WGAs), or ‘proper accounts’ were only started 4
years ago, have been audit qualified and material omissions noted. In UK both
in Treasury staffing and basic philosophy economics have held sway at the
expense of accountancy. If economics is theoretical and statistics based,
accountancy is factual and operations orientated. <i>Management accounting</i> is only slowly being adopted. It is the tool
which organises data for decision-making, and for financial control in large
decentralised organisations. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 11.35pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 11.35pt; margin-top: 0cm;">
<span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">It
is truly astonishing </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">that the Comptroller &
Auditor General (National Audit Office) should
in the 21<sup>st</sup> century have to “call on the government to help fully
realize the potential benefits of WGA in
the running of government and use them to inform policy making and assist in
medium term financial management.” The same applies to the CIPFA (Chartered
Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy) hope that “the treasury will start
to lead the way in this by using WGA in the presentation of fiscal events
such as the budget and the autumn statement, including by reporting outturn
against budget for the whole public sector, and publishing forward balance
sheet forecasts.” The ICAEW (Chartered Accountants) have pointed out the lack
of a Chief Finance Officer at the cabinet table. Heaven help the OBR and the
Chancellor for his Autumn statement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There are many <b>‘side effects’</b>
of all this. Topically, with the fallout from the Scottish desire for
independence, is the constitutional. It is now being more widely understood that
there is a stress point between the need and desire for decentralisation and
the need for central control over the money supply, currency stability, and
regional monetary cross-fertilisation. The eurozone is learning the painful
lesson. But what is not realised is that there are conceptually simple
‘accounting’ solutions for this which, for example, extend into the possibility
of new thinking on such as local taxation. Conventional accounting to taxpayers as owners has yet to happen.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To
take just one side effect, right now the statistic called <b>GDP</b> in ratio with debt is
much talked of </span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">(Gross domestic product – see note 1)</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">. There is no absolute relationship but if debt rises and GDP
falls that is bad news for politicians and “hard-working taxpayers”. It is now
thought important to make sure that GDP is inclusive of ‘gross income’. This
means finding out and adding in such as the national sex and gambling industry
income. However accountants will tell you that in comparisons and trends
consistency is better than spurious precision.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Someone
in the treasury right now is debating how to treat the cost of the new aircraft
carrier <i>Queen Elizabeth</i>. Should it be
‘written off’ as money spent (good news – GDP goes up)? Talking up GDP doesn’t
fatten the pig for market. Should the cost
be amortised over the life of the asset (bad news - in-year GDP goes
down), and if it gets sunk does that mean a terminal ‘write-off’ or should the unexpired life remain on the books ? Again
accountants coped long ago with such questions in serving industry.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: -2.0cm; margin-right: 34.0pt; margin-top: 0cm; tab-stops: 14.0cm; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Another
symptom: just the other day realisation began to dawn that taxpayers have a
right to know where their money goes. Solution: place online a pre-1492 simple
tally of payments over £500! Why? Do we
pay our council tax and have our roads repaired in parcels of £500 or single transactions? And what does
it all add up to in context?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">How
out of date is the local authority<b> </b>attitude
to the Annual Report? Eric Pickles claims as new the requirement for certain
facts to be disclosed to taxpayers such as pay scales. He says he believes in
the need to address voter engagement. But those facts and many others have long
been included in financial statements which are integral to the narrative.
Positive engagement requires the delivery of the Annual Report as a
conventional procedural matter. But on present performance that would happen
AFTER the election.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">To
sum up: the tragedy is that the TaxPayers Alliance has done great work on
examples of waste and there is a book out on government blunders but money
spent cannot be unspent. It is not possible to calculate the effect of
good versus bad management. But causes of blunders are more important than individual mistakes. For
those who recognise what is unprofessional, untrained and unaccounted for know
for certain that we as a country don’t have the governance that we need,
deserve and miss. Politicians, Party people, academicians please note or leave the stage. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-right: 11.35pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Note 1 GDP or Gross Disposable Product is the sum
of private spending, government spending, business capital spending and total
net exports minus total imports. The underground or ‘black’ economy is
excluded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-18421066837603843192014-02-20T04:09:00.001-08:002014-02-25T12:14:36.785-08:00Transparency or accountability ?<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Politicians piously
profess <b>transparency</b> and open
government. But that is a qualitative attitude not an act. It too often means only access to lifeless and historical mass data.
It has no primary operational point, only secondary availability for
academic research or statistical purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Accountability</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"> on the
other hand, which is professed but not
practiced by government, is an act of discharge or formal process for a purpose. It is to support with evidence and
organised data the formation of policy and operational decision. That embraces
the total management control system and also democratic discharge and renewal. At root is the transaction which once executed is not informative in isolation.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px;">Often the word accountable is left meaningless and in the air as in 'making councillors accountable". But for what, to whom, and how ?</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The total system
concept means for a functioning enterprise the nervous system exactly as it is in
the human frame: alive and dynamic with constant feedback and reaction. All
organisations to a greater or lesser degree operate such a total system. The
corner shop version functions considerably in the mind of the proprietor. As
enterprises grow larger they must give greater attention to the design drawing
and flow chart etc governing people (and machine) inter-action. The stated
objective(s) of the enterprise will determine the system but there are timeless disciplines and
techniques with many reflected in legislation. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Government(s) tend to
be the only organisations that have not grown into that concept largely because
of the ‘Ponzi’ or Bernie Madoff mentality
in the face of supposed electoral pressures, and failure to link performance
and stewardship reporting to electoral proposal. The worst recent case of
government failure to do ‘proper accounts’ was that of Greece in 2009 but with
UK not so far behind and the European Court of Auditors refusal to pass the
accounts now for 19 years with no assurance likely in the future because of the
basic defect. UK government's view of its own operations is officially said to be obscured<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">One must remove from
one’s mind the artificial separation between numbers and words. Paradoxically
in government “financial statements” are for other people. But quite simply
there is the human aspiration and ‘people’ and material resource inextricably
linked to the monetary resource. The recording and reporting essentials are
very simple: money being a conveniently universal unit of measurement a finite amount is required to do what has to
be done and stakeholders need to know the outcome; the exception is the laying
out of funds (investment) and the anticipatory borrowing of money ahead of
events with the score being kept for that. Contrary to what many people realise
there are additional disclosure requirements such as for pay level scaling.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">The Annual Report is
the customary vehicle (except in government) for telling we interested parties
what has been the performance, reasoning and outlook and then seeking a vote of approval plus renewed or changed authority to proceed ‘in office’. </span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">As regards
disciplines and techniques there are a number of professional bodies.
Accounting is represented principally by the ICAEW (Institute of Chartered
Accountants in England and Wales; <i>the
Scottish Institute is separate </i>!), CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management
accountants) and CIPFA (Chartered Institute of public Finance and Accountancy).
Some years ago there was an attempt (unsuccessful) at a merger. CIMA is least
noticed in government and the Treasury ‘majority party’ are economists. The
ICAEW has identified the lack of a CFO(Chief Financial Officer) at
the cabinet table.</span><br />
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">It is worth mentioning alongside the above 'philosophical' analysis that there are probably two causes of the many major project failures, Not only has there been a lack of project management skill in the manderinate but also an experience-lacking inability to think clinically and expressively about objectives and requirements sufficient for translation into IT system specifications.</span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Who
will mend UK governance ?<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-82641289054092613492013-11-18T02:33:00.001-08:002014-03-21T07:11:32.252-07:00DYSFUNCTIONAL UK GOVERNMENT: CONSPIRACY OR COCK-UP ? DOES IT CARE?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 21.45pt 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Chancellor
George Osborne in November 2013 says in talking up the recovery prospects that
“the biggest risk…….was to give into popular policies that would damage
domestic businesses and the UK’s economic competitiveness”. </span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Quite right, <b><span style="color: red;">but not with continued populist political short-termism trumping sound
professional management for the longer term.<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 21.45pt 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">1 Conspiracy ?:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> why has government not
observed the purposes, norms, concepts, principles and standards of
accountability practice ? </span><span lang="EN-GB">Three ‘authorities’ asked have not denied that
this as a ‘secret’ Machiavellian tenet of political science ie that the masses
should be kept in the dark as much as possible. Until proven otherwise
professed “transparency”, being passive,
is a lie.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <u>And</u>,
“Government’s view of its own operations remains clouded” <i>Efficiency and Reform Board member with cost and management accounting
in mind</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">2 Cock-up ?:</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> BIG-time - By 2010 the UK
public sector debt had risen in two years from £580bn to £820bn (+ 40%) and is “now”
(</span><span lang="EN-GB">31/3/12</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">) £1,190bn ( +another 45%) and still rising. And
big-time - repeated operational failures
such as during the implementation of the universal credit welfare reform.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">3 The European context
first: <b>Euro-stress ?: </b>One only needs
to read<b> </b><i>The Lost Continent by Gavin Hewitt</i> to realise how government
negligence cripples the eurozone arrangements with dire consequences for
peoples. <i>See below. <o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">4 In the UK we now have clear evidence</span></b><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">: <b><span style="color: red;">The Treasury has allowed governing politicians to work on the
basis that future taxation is certain
and therefore to be disregarded. </span></b><i>See below<b><span style="color: red;">.</span></b></i><b><span style="color: red;"> The
consequence – behaviour for which Bernie
Madoff is in prison - now dangerously goes
on to assume certainty of debt finance.</span></b><span style="color: red;"> </span><b>Such negligence grows ‘character weakness’
on top of debt: in resource management, lax banking, inefficient processes, and
so on. </b>In populist terms emotive “cuts” submerge the language of governance.</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">5 These conclusions,
which naturally follow</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> HAS GOVERNMENT A BRAIN ?
and WHO WILL MEND UK GOVERNMENT ? follow</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">
sight of the transcript of the <b>Public Accounts
Committee</b> meeting with Treasury mandarins and others on 21<sup>st</sup>
October to receive answers to questions on the Whole of Government Accounts 2011-12
(WGAs). Some utterances by Sir Nicholas Macpherson, Permanent Secretary, are:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">“For many years,
members of this Committee have criticised, first the accumulation of public
pension liabilities and, secondly, the accumulation of PFI debt. The benefit of
WGAs is that those liabilities are squarely on our balance sheets.” “The WGA is helping to inform the treasury’s
approach </span></i><span lang="EN-GB">(traditionally “national accounts” – basically revenue
and spending - statistical)<i> to the public
finances and is a response to Parliament’s, in my view, wholly legitimate
concern that a whole lot of <b><span style="color: red;">activities were off balance sheet.”<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
Two sets of accounts… “<i>The
reality is that national accounts are an economist’s concept and the Whole of
Government Accounts are an accountant’s
view of the world. Both are right in their own terms. Why does the Chancellor
primarily focus on the national accounts when he stands up and delivers his
annual Budget ? Mainly because all the big international institutions – the
IMF, OECD and so on – are run by economists rather than accountants, …” WGAs
….focus on long-term liabilities…” “<b><span style="color: red;">what accountants don’t take into account is the fact that the
state has power to tax its citizens</span></b>, so we don’t discount future
revenue flows to set against the very big pension liabilities”<b><span style="color: red;">.<o:p></o:p></span></b></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 21.3pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 21.3pt;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">6 There are also some 20 major
topics from the WGA questioned for answer by the attending civil servants. It is
striking that without proper accounts
there would be no PAC questions. Yet the newness of and approach to WGA is
incredible if one realises that they are meant to be exactly the same in consolidated
format and purpose as has been the norm in corporate life for generations. It
is striking too that the PAC, by
default, is exercising the role and responsibility which elsewhere would be
that of management in a way Parliament is not capable of. And surely the PAC is
duplicating an auditor’s role ? There is also the further implication, never mentioned, that consolidation of the
whole defines the subsidiary role of all public activities – which rather
spoils all the heated political ‘localism’ and ‘centralism’ arguments which are
so unproductively wasteful of energy. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">7 The role of <b>debt finance</b> is growing alongside that
of taxation to fund increasingly interventionist electorate-pleasing
programmes. With that comes the need to refinance old debt and service the
total. Excessive reliance on debt
finance has undermined democracy, with government finance increasingly
determined by repayment schedules rather
than electoral cycles. Creditors are not concerned with how money is spent,
only debt security. This lies at the heart of the euro crisis of coherence and
violent antipathy of Greek, and Spanish populations towards the arguably better
managed Germans. It has actually caused
such depression and punishing austerity but so far without popular admission
that the fault is domestic. Treaty-based
debt ceilings (expressed relative to GDP) are toothless.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">8 Extracted from Gavin
Hewitt’s The lost Continent pp55-68 et seq.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">“During the Greek election campaign in 2009 the
socialist candidate, George Papandreou tried to unearth the true state of the
economy. He didn’t start to find out until later. On the day before polling the
outgoing government sent an official document to the European Commission which
lied about the deficit..”It was not keeping proper accounts”.<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">It emerged that pension funds had no money to
pay the October pensions. State hospitals had not been paying their bills
(e6bn). “Paying tax was almost a lifestyle choice”. “Bogus welfare claims on
fake medical certificates. “millions of euros were wasted on retirement
payments to long-dead pensioners”. And much more…<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<i><span lang="EN-GB">In 2010 Andreas Georgiou returned from the IMF
to run the National Statistical Institute: “records were adjusted to suit the
demands of politicians”. He found no documentation for hundreds of entities
that were already classified as part of general government. “ Very importantly,
a number of state-controlled bodies, like the Greek National tourism
organisation and national and radio and television network were not included on
the books of the government as they should have been”. A major enterprise also
left out was the Hellenic Railways, which was experiencing heavy losses</span></i><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">.</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">NOW READ
THE Comptroller & Auditor general’s qualifications of the UK Whole of Government
Accounts ! And in the context of ONS statistics versus WGAs…… read Network Rail for Hellenic Railways !<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">9 Growing <b>debt burdens drifted into</b> with the
associated recessions, a vicious circle,
have provided the huge jolt required.
Political leaders realise the dreadful truth when saying things about
long term austerity. But where is the reform of governance ? The solutions are
to hand if not definable in political language. W</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt;">ith political short-termism having democratic benefits there can still
be transformation. As an aside at PAC Q89 chair Margaret Hodge said:”</span><span style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> <b><span lang="EN-GB">“I think the Committee
would always stand behind the treasury if it was tougher, as we always say, as
a Finance Ministry, rather than just dishing out the money”.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt 14.2pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -14.2pt;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 14.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">10 Why must we The People
be governed by people always eager to legislate, regulate and obfuscate, but
not to lead by example ? Please may we now have <b>BETTER GOVERNMENT</b> ‘moving on’ from the military and imperial, to the
professional ? Perhaps Her Majesty could ‘have a word’.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-71121805644159924052013-05-12T06:20:00.000-07:002013-05-25T01:47:00.632-07:00<br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">WHO
WILL MEND UK GOVERNMENT ? (2)<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTING
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial Black","sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Imagine:
May 2013 LOCAL ELECTION RESULTS TO BE PUBLISHED ON 2<sup>nd</sup> March 2015<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 14.0pt;">That is the time it takes to produce the UK Whole of Government
Accounts (WGAs) !<o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">These, now in to their second year,
are “a giant leap forward when compared with what was there before” and are “in
the forefront internationally”. The Chief Executive of CIPFA commenting on the
appalling PAC report (The redoubtable Margaret Hodge’s Public Accounts
Committee) is being kind to the Treasury. WGA failed to get a mention in the
budget 2013 documentation. Conventional consolidated accounts have been the
norm in groups of companies since time
began. Yet the same Treasury defensively claims academic interest rather than
operational integration, the true purpose. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">The facts
portrayed should be integral to the decision-action-feedback-decision loop
which elsewhere is moving feedback inexorably in to real-time. As well as the
discharge of accountability for performance their timeliness and quality is of
the essence as data input to decisions for the future.</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> For its forecasts and
evaluations the OBR(Office of Budget Responsibility) depends on factual input
for course correction. It was kept waiting 18 months for draft-only accounts. 4
months later still the Auditor General qualified his report. Normally the
quality of forecasts depends on the analysis of variations between the forecast to be updated and rolled forward, and
‘actuals’ fed back. ‘Actuals’ mean as just now, not in the dim and distant past
since when much has changed.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It
is not generally realised that there is a fundamental flaw at the heart of
government management accounting and reporting</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">. We have publicly protested at Brussels-led
spending whose accounts have still after
18 years not satisfied the court of Auditors. On 10<sup>th</sup> November 2008 Matthew Elliott for the TaxPayers
Alliance joined 8 of his European counterparts in signing a published
letter protesting at inaccurate and audit-failed EU Accounts over 14 years (now
18). On the day following, MEP Ashley Mote’s answering letter explained that <b><span style="color: red;">satisfactory
assurance would never be attained because of “the concept of “shared
management” which leaves accountability in the hands of recipients of public
funds”. This immediately suggested to the undersigned that the UK hadn’t even
started on its 14 year audit failure because, put another way,
‘governments vote funds and then walk away’.</span></b> Correspondence with the
Comptroller and Auditor General (NAO) confirmed this and general fears about
national government financial disciplines. While good intentions and
improvements were stated in reply there unexpectedly came the news that it was
intended for the first time to produce Whole of Government Accounts(WGAs),
followed by budgets (WGBs). Called for by Parliament in 1995 the WGAs did not
arrive, incredibly, until those for 2009-10 15 years later, and then only after
22 months delay in publication. <span style="color: #7030a0;"> </span><span style="color: red; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">WGBs</span><span style="color: red;"> never materialised !</span> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">It has been suggested that other
countries are more advanced. That seems to mean having, but not getting beyond,
such as multiple area income taxes instead of simply just one. For the UK local
funding theory destroys the link between local tax and local policy spending because
muddled with equalisation (redistribution through grants), confiscation and
precept. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">“Walking away” sets the tone for tax
and spend. Down in local government
taxpayers are disregarded and disenfranchised. Nationally it is relied on that something
will turn up in the form of increased economic activity. GDP at all costs is
the cry notwithstanding that that includes non-productive government activity,
the black economy, even crime. The cumulative circulation of money is spoken of
as an unmitigated good even to the point of destruction of it’s exchange value.
<span style="color: red;">It all adds up to a net accumulated deficit of £1.1tn and rising
currently by more than £120bn each year. </span><b>Oh, look everybody. Where did that
come from ?</b> It came from not keeping the score properly and because
grandiose politics negligently trumps thrifty forward planning and sound management.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Care is
required on urgently necessary decentralisation</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";"> which is currently only talked about
ad nauseam in such as the H o C Constitution Committee or the debt and
deficit will become even more threatening and unmanageable. In 2005 Sir
Michael Lyons was given, face to face, a scheme for local government funding
which provided for both macro control and decentralisation. It was disregarded.
As to “shared management” MPs (The
Business, Innovation and Skills Committee) criticise the government’s
“hands-off” approach to monitoring the performance of LEPs (Lord Heseltine’s
local Enterprise Partnerships) “despite the fact that they are being given
taxpayers’ money and are responsible for key areas such as local infrastructure,
planning and job creation”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #0070c0; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";">Surely the archaically
titled Treasury should BE the OBR; its
OTS (Office of Tax simplification) should BE integral and deploy rather more
than the present 6 people; should SET THE STANDARD and BE THE EXAMPLE for the discharge
of accountability and management reporting at all levels; should SET THE STANDARD for government managerial infrastructure and deployment: only now are senior
Civil Servants receiving training in project management; it is 50 years out of
date. Why are Ministers powerless in the face of the Manderinate ? Why is the
Cabinet Office, with eg its component the Major Projects Authority, uneasily trying to fill the vacuum ? Is it not understood from
experience-based thought experiment what domestic government is supposed to be
about ? It is not now about fighting and paying for wars, or running an empire (with a few District Commissioners),
but professionally managing its own responsibilities in the domestic sphere
where an increasingly interventionist stance requires modern industrial systems
and attititudes to cope with the progressive sub-division of labour in modern
society.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt;">Note: reference has
been made to “gobbledegook” in the WGAs. Over time the art of communication has
been lost in ever-more legalistic and jargon-filled detailing of the accounting
simplicities of book-balancing, assets and liabilities and factual disclosure.
That this has continued is itself damning evidence of Treasury failure. And
where is CIPFA and the NAO in all this ?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-43117268755924858132012-02-17T09:24:00.001-08:002012-02-18T01:11:55.430-08:00WHO WILL MEND UK GOVERNMENT ?<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"> </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">“For those who understand, no explanation is necessary; for those who don’t understand, no explanation is possible”</span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Regardless of Party or big-issue policy debate, we need better domestic government. Aside from its ordering of civil society it needs to look to the design of its own management, process and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>delivery. Politicians, capable of radical thought but not radical action, are helpless in the face of a civil service that can be reluctant or inept and wrongly skilled. At least one 72 year-old body of professionalism, Operational Research, seems still beyond <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>their ken.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Here are just seven compelling pieces of evidence:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">”This is the big dirty secret that politicians scarcely talk about, an all-party fact of life. The machinery of government is breaking down. Nobody knows what to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>do about it” (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">former government special adviser in three departments of state Katherine Raymond, Sunday Times, 28<sup>th</sup> may 2006)</i></span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">The extreme complexity of the over-engineered taxation system is evidenced by the unwieldy length of the annually updated official Tolley guide (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the page count nearly doubled in 6 years recently to over 10,500 (larger print equivalent)).</i> Also the individual taxpayer is denied an answer to the question “where has all the money gone ?”.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">In 2012 HM government produced its first-ever proper and consolidated annual accounts, but with a qualified audit report. Apart from what they contained, some of which was bad enough, they took 16 years in gestation, and another 20 months to publication date after the event. The late evolution and execrable performance standard characterises a Treasury failing a nation in dire need of financial management.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol start="4" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">The local government funding system does not allow real local control and accountability. Many abortive or tinkering attempts over decades to resolve its contradictions and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Heath Robinson’ machinery, have been money down the drain. Similar remarks apply as in 3 to the failure cleanly to resolve the local and central divide in decision competences, and given the existence of more modern money seeking and financial management concepts. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(My personal diagnosis was developed during close experience of the ‘many attempts’, coupled with relevant experience in a UK conglomerate with global reach, small HQ, sophisticated non-interfering management and key figure financial control).</i></span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">The announcement of an academy for training senior civil servants eg in big project management is long overdue and comes only now in 2012.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol start="6" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Over-use of legislation as the instrument to solve operational problems <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">(alluding to remarks <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>by recently retired Head of the Civil Service, Lord O’Donnell).</i> Red-tape is spawned, creativity and personal responsibility inhibited yet overpaid for limited risk.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol start="7" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Evidence for proper public accountability is absent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Government excuses itself from disciplines that it legislates for compliance by others. The once only Annual Report for 1999-2000 released on to the high street, was presumably thought too brave an idea.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">That no progress has been made is amply evidenced by continuing media reports of red-tape and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>lethargic bureaucracy over many years. The language is almost word for word unchanged. One exception to this thanks largely to the TaxPayers Alliance, is that money is now recognised as deriving from taxpayers <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>rather than being a different currency called “government money”.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">The solution lies in:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">The establishment of a small System Architect’s Department of State headed by a ‘Chief Engineer’ for the ‘Ship of State’, to give intelligent design impetus to all machinery and processes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol start="2" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">The Crown appointment of a person of Beeching-like strength to head a ‘polaris’ project for the simplification of tax and reduction in number of the different levies. Re-stated <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>primary objectives for taxation as a whole, and <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>implementation-ready end-date would be established before commencement of project planning.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol start="3" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Attention to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>financial discipline as called for by the National Audit Office</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><ol start="4" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Implementation of a new local funding system as offered personally to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sir Michael Lyons in 2005, and others, which would resolve the anomalies described in 4 above, This would be simple to implement without conflicting with 2 above.(<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Local Government Select Committee’s consideration in 2006-07 included evidence submitted by me (ev111) which was clearly reflected in the conclusion drawn that a return to the drawing board was necessary. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This was ignored by government</i>.) </span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><br />
</div><ol start="5" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Delivery of timely narrative audited annual reports to discharge accountability (for public money). This with 6 below will be transformational.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><br />
</div><ol start="6" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Provision to individual citizens of a tax share statement or calculator, linked to the national accounts, and printed on the back of existing documentation such as coding notices and council tax invoices.</span></li>
</ol><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><span style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Peter Webb<span style="mso-tab-count: 10;"> </span>17<sup>th</sup> February 2012</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div>Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-59727985953037882232011-12-31T02:50:00.000-08:002011-12-31T02:50:17.425-08:00HAS GOVERNMENT A BRAIN ? And what of Surrey CC ?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Elected government is ultimately responsible to the people for getting it right executively and operationally, yet politicians stand apart <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>from the Civil Service. The retiring<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Head Sir Gus O’Donnell has just said that there is too much<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"> problem solving by legislation</b>, and not enough risk-taking.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">The Rt Hons Eric Pickles, for local government, and David Cameron, for Departments of State, knowing that government costs an awful lot of money but trying to leave it to us to do their job for them, love the new idea of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“armchair audit”</b>. They fondly imagine you and I excitedly poring over masses of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>unformed data about things beyond our ken and “holding to account”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But this only means that we are left to wonder what it all adds up to, and who in the shapeless body of government can be held to account, how and for what exactly.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Consider a terrifying thought in the light of the <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">deficit-laden<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>public finances.</b><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Chancellor, for his Autumn Statement, relied on input from the Office of Budget Responsibility. This included provisional data in the first ever Whole of Government (consolidated) Accounts, for 2009-10. These are only now (today) due to be placed before the House of Commons by the Treasury with a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General ( will he not sign them as has happened in Europe now for 17 years ?). <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">That data is 21 months out of date</b>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">So called management-speak, particularly of the financial kind, is anathema to politicians. The front line is good and the back office bad. They have a poor sense of the dynamics of delivery up to the point where the word sounds good in political-speak. Government is 50 years behind the times in the evolution stakes. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The ship of state is not designed to cleave the waters and is without a chief engineer </b>(a new Department of State perhaps ?). They seem unable to grasp the concept of the Total System, and System Architecture now transformed by communication technology advance. This failing is crystal clear to one who has been fortunate in his industrial post-graduate on-the-job training and career-long senior experience.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">There is a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">crying need for simplification</b> with a big S in thought and practise. And this is aside from the desperate need for radical simplification of the tax system beyond just the usual tinkering which seems only to increase the length of the official guide.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Big problems have spawned a body of analysis tools and techniques based on common sense and some mathematics, and the ordered and disciplined use of symbolic and diagrammatic portrayal for communication and resolution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Operational Research</b> has like other professional disciplines been prone to jargon. However it has given sight to blind people. One can quote Organisation and Methods, Work Study, Critical Path Planning (CPP), and now Lean Technology.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">The <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">important thing is the mind-bending </b>leading to decisions for action and its direction, completion and feed-back<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">.</b> What is the economic case for a fire extinguisher ? What is the optimum pump layout and spacing on a forecourt ? What the best alternative cash flow projection.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Here is some history which may be news to some. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the US in the cold war there was an urgent need for a new weapon. Its creation had to be from then unknown science to <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>meet a definable objective delivered in the shortest possible time. It was a vast project. The Polaris submarine was born of CPP which in turn was based on Network Analysis. That in turn took a simple line (activity) and joined it to a circle (event) from which the inter-connections spread out working back from the wished-for deadline. This is still at the heart of project planning and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>management with additions for optimum resource allocation – not a restraint financially with Polaris. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">My pet example: Local government let alone national government doesn’t even yet discharge and sign off accountability by delivered narrative <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Annual Report </b>by the leader or chairman. To do this it requires the financial aspect, ie audited annual accounts, to be available quickly to complete the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>picture. Our resident taxpayers’ rights are dismissed with bland talk of (passive) transparency. It has often been said that to speed up from the present six months or so would cost more in council tax when in practice the reverse is probably true. Certainly each day of delay wastefully diminishes value. I first met the problem early in my career 50 years ago when a new Chief Accountant. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had been on a one-day Operational Research course <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and discovered the remarkably simple network analysis idea –simple is revolutionary as was the invention in 1492 of double entry book-keeping. I was able to apply this to the production of a bar-chart <u>company-wide </u><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>inter-facing timetable for completion of the Accounts. It was<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a crash course in my employer’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>manufacturing company activities outside the financial. But only now in 2011 has SCC, according to an official Minute (of a committee), come to understand this interdependence within itself to contrast with the traditional <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">departmentalised silo mentality</b>, a political rather than reality tuned mind-set.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">As a local tax campaigner I recently spotted a recruitment advertisement for a <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lean technologist</b> for the Royal Surrey County Hospital. Expecting to be able to go <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">yah boo non-job !</i> I contacted the recruiting agency who, however,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>gave me full explanation and reference to the professional body. Once again I experienced the thrill of discovery. This technique started life in the Toyota Company seeking to ‘car-centre’ its production and assembly process to optimise the movement of people and parts etc. focussing on the car <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>rather than the separate and remote or awkwardly placed departments. It is increasingly used in hospitals to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">patient-centre </b>the medical process. The working analysis will discover and portray for resolution the high proportion of ‘idle’ time and ‘in-between’ activity. It is noteworthy that these disciplines are not employed primarily to save money but anyone with imagination will see that this must be one result. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">It is good to be able to report that at our recent meeting with<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Leader David Hodge and </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 9pt;">Acting Assistant</span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"> Head of Finance of <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Surrey</b> County Council Sheila Little, we learnt that work and results now ensue from Change and Efficiency Directorate employment of this thinking in its <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Public Value Reviews</b>. Please may it extend to a revolution in the ‘mainline’ ways things are done by, for example, simplification<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of its constitution and innovative streamlining of due process. The last World War took less time to fight and finish than it took SCC to initiate and “sign off” the new street lighting.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Please let’s transform the ways and attitudes of government by letting in and encouraging higher quality brainpower and management clout. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Politicians need to regain our trust in their competence.</span></b></div>Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-38228813872179061092011-07-31T04:38:00.000-07:002011-07-31T05:57:36.293-07:00Watch out ! There are (local) Party politicians about !<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;">It has only recently struck me how much legislation is designed in<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a vain attempt to control or counteract the inadequacy of Party politicians where they have responsibility for actual decision-making.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;">Currently the department of Communities & Local Government has consulted before legislating to privatise and modernise Local Public Audit. There is debate about how to secure audit independence, and auditor selection and appointment when in fact there are established <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>or frequently updated safeguards in custom and practise. But it seems that this is not safe with local councils who must have an Audit Committee with balanced party representation. As if we wouldn’t notice if Surrey CC appointed Messrs Hide, Fix and Fiddle, Accountants, of Back Street Woking. In other words they are not regarded as competent to decide on their own and cannot be trusted. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;">Because the local politicians elected to run their councils are not expected to be experienced or of sound judgement, and might bully their professional staff <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>there must be a statutory officer (sec 151 Officer) to be responsible for vetting financial forecasts and adequacy of reserves. In other words they are not competent to decide and cannot be trusted.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;">Select Committees have been the thing for years now at Westminster because of the shortcomings of the House of Commons chamber for governance. Now it is required of local councils to have them too. This in spite of their membership of committees having to be politically <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘balanced’. In fact they may well not have relevant knowledge or judgement for their subject. And their talking shops conflict with the purposes and objectives of line management at the top of which sits “political management”. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words they are collectively not competent to decide and cannot be trusted. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;">Councils have large staffs to answer their members’ questions. But at taxpayers’ expense they are<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>also allowed to employ political assistants. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In other words they get away with murder even if they are not competent to decide and cannot be trusted. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 16pt;">And taxpayers have to pay for all the extra rituals, regulations and restrictions necessary to keep politicians from doing too much damage.</span></div>Peter Webb on Taxhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18057996406644789754noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-15474375841032754122011-06-02T12:29:00.000-07:002011-06-02T12:29:50.744-07:00Innovation in Surrey CC ?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: #1f497d;">The STAG is grateful to a supporter for this article which helpfully summarises where we are with the growing policy and local public service issue of health and social care. Taxpayers are not only concerned about their own ‘joined up’ care outlook but also the demands on our pockets as determined by the quality of its management. In particular the management of Inter-agency collaboration can make or break outcomes.</span></i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">We are forever concerned about how we have to keep paying more and more rates and taxes for what seems to be just bureaucracy. So I was delighted to meet a team at one of Surrey’s Borough Councils recently that are dedicated to saving us money and being passionate about improving their services. They are the Borough Community Support Services team. We talked about looking after older people. Why would a STAG member want to talk about older people, you might well ask? It is not just because several of us are those older people with time to worry about these things!</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s simple, really. The average age of the population is getting older by 2 months every year, consequently suffering poorer health for longer. NHS Surrey spends £1.6 Bn on our health, and the Council spends about 40% of its overall budget (less Education) on Adult Social Care (£374 M). A staggering 75% of this total is spent on looking after the 3% of the most critically ill people, who are commonly older people with long term conditions, such as heart or lung problems, diabetes and dementia. If there are ways of looking after these people more efficiently and effectively, then they surely must be taken.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">It is a ‘must’ rather than an option. We will have 15 million senior citizens in England by 2020, with less working age people to look after us! If we don’t change anything, care will cost over 20% of GDP by 2050 (OECD report), so we have to change the way we provide care, or it will collapse. You can already see the strain it is under now, with press stories about health or care problems almost daily. It needs a new way of managing care that costs less, while also giving people a better service. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">This can now be done by using modern computers and telecommunications to enable people to be cared for in the comfort of their own homes for much longer, instead of in expensive hospitals or care homes. And who would not prefer to stay at home? The facility is called telecare. This used to be simply about falls monitors, which raised alarms when you fell over, to call for someone to help you get up again. But now there are sophisticated home based monitors for all sorts of things like blood pressure, breathing capability, heart rate, and so on, so that an alert can be raised when conditions start to go in the wrong direction. Early corrective interventions will avoid serious episodes that mean emergency hospitalisation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">New telecare can save big money, because every A&E visit costs about £2,000 to process, followed often by a 7 day stay at another £4,000, then frequent outpatient and GP visits which keep adding to the cost paid for by the NHS. Moving to a care home will cost at least £35,000 per year, the average life there is 3 years, mostly paid for by the Council. But for people who own their own homes it can mean selling up and losing much of their children’s legacy. Keeping people in their own homes makes economic sense, as well as improving patients’ safety and wellbeing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">However, caring for patients in their own homes for much longer than presently possible, requires much more than just monitoring of their condition. The new telecare technology makes it possible to enable:</span></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Video consultations between carers and patients that gives carers a much better understanding of conditions than just looking at monitoring charts, or asking questions over the telephone</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Much more opportunity for the many care service organisations to collaborate on behalf of the patient. The commonest complaint about the NHS is that it is ‘not joined up’. But it is not just the NHS: Councils, Pharmacists, Opticians, Housing Trusts, Meals-on-wheels, and many others, all have duties of care, and need to be part of the ‘joined up care’ service</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">On call contacts for the patient, with a variety of trusted specialists for advice, and video training and guidance reminders for self care, to enable them to understand and live better with their conditions, rather than suffering them. This alleviates the demands on (and costs of) professional staff.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Provision of respite for personal carers (friends and family), whose dedication to caring for their loved ones makes a huge contribution that the authorities would otherwise have to take on, but creates great demands and stresses on individuals</span></li>
</ul><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Clearly, to make big savings in care costs, this technology needs to be deployed on a large scale. Then the question becomes ‘how can this be managed?’ The aim is to provide highly personalised care by a wide variety of care organisations to individuals living in a wide variety of circumstances with a wide variety of health conditions, and yet keep personal information very secure. This is both a technology challenge and a management challenge for the 21<sup>st</sup> century that most developed countries around the world are facing.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">One challenge is that there are many suppliers of telecare equipment that are proprietary, which means that care providers have restricted choices for patients with complex needs, and may have to operate several systems to serve all their clients. This is not manageable on a large scale, and has been a severe limitation on the growth of telecare use.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Another major challenge to the authorities is the need for early identification of people who need help, because so much more can be done to prevent them going in to hospital and care homes. Both the NHS and Councils claim they only identify about 30% of people who could be helped, but they are different 30%’s, because there is very little collaboration between them! A typical problem is that an NHS hospital discharges a patient after a serious episode, who then goes home with no support, because the hospital does not refer the patient to Social Services.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">What is interesting and very encouraging is that the Community Support Services team at the Council have recognised these challenges. They are working hard on collaborating closely with the local NHS, and are insisting that all telecare and telehealth is to be managed with a single platform, challenging suppliers to cooperate. What is more, they have impressed SCC with their efforts and plans so much, that they have been asked to take their programme across the whole of Surrey CC. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">STAG members can look forward to joined up care in their final years!</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-36675756878933013872011-04-13T08:40:00.000-07:002011-04-13T08:40:56.268-07:00Is it to be CENTRALISED LOCALISM, or LOCALISED CENTRALISM ?<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Localism Bill currently wending its way through Parliament seems yet another sticking plaster on sticking plaster exercise. It doesn’t deal with the funding system and it doesn’t address the overall ‘organisation chart’ for structuring <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>public services governance and operational decision-making .</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The Minister Eric Pickles, lays into local authorities for spending too much or paying people too much yet is in effect the Minister for weekly bin collections.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All main Parties profess decentralisation and “vibrant local democracy” but show a long history of failed attempts to de-regulate, cut red tape, “reduce the size of the State” and so on. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">To this outside observer there are signs of lack of exposure to ways of thinking and doing things outside Westminster and Whitehall and party politics. There are other ‘disciplines’ and tools as well as politics and economics.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Many evolutionary and historical factors explain the tendency to centralise. They are mostly benign or embedded<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in human nature. Some<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>are irreversible where globalisation and wider mobility, standardisation (eg clock-time), communications and technology transfer are drivers. A malign exception is the effect of creeping sovietisation from the EU. But It is entirely right and ‘good business’ to want individual<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>democratic input<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and delegation of decision-making to the lowest possible level. For achievement and maintenance there must be a sense of designed architecture. This is Parliament’s business but the Ship of State lacks a Naval Architect and Chief Engineer .</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Local Government” is a sort of party political second XI and as such managerially artificial. People are less tied to place and local authorities are not free-standing. For referenda on council tax does “local people” mean only council tax payers, who are in the minority, and in respect of which component ?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does “giving a say”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>mean informing, consulting, seeking advice, seeking feedback, asking for a choice between stated alternatives.?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For effective practical application should not devolution of power be distinguished from delegation of responsibility ? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If Local Authorities are increasingly staffed up to meet government regulating influences it could also be said that over-staffing is due to being unsure about their objectives. Are they to ‘be’ or to ‘do’ ? A witnessed manifestation of this is the amount of introspective and self-indulgent activity that is carried out to show off to the Audit Commission. Add to this the tendency to ritualise procedures to a degree that obscures the main thought and purpose eg for risk analysis and equality and diversity. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">There is a government culture characterised by<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>political behaviour, legislation as an instrument, departmental ‘silo’ mentality, the rise of the quango ‘virus’, and protocols and arrangements generally. In fact what matters at the pithead and coalface is <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>people DOing what has to be done. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">There is little recognition that there is a delivery chain in government administration and public service. This in turn needs for completion a feedback loop (undeveloped in government) within a command and reporting structure.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">It is suggested therefore that for a significantly smaller State without throwing the baby out with the bathwater there are these solutions:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 35.45pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Parliament must go for ‘world class’ financial control over government beyond just Treasury functions. (How is the business conducted without it ?)</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 35.45pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Resources of people and money for legislating, regulating and policing must be capped at an arbitrary level well below the ‘ideal’ so as naturally to force greater prioritisation.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 35.45pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Allow upward precepting to present more directly to legislators and regulators, together with accounts, and budget<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>consolidation, the consequences of their impositions. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Perhaps<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Returning Power”, or empowerment,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>would follow more naturally given central reduction and disempowerment within a consciously designed architecture and non-interfering management philosophy. A necessary first step would be to set up at the top of national government, a Constitution Systems Architecture Department.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-79180947151606395572011-02-09T06:40:00.001-08:002011-02-09T06:40:44.380-08:00The crash of politics<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">The current national news of the public deficit, whether to borrow more or cut spending, has revealed the inescapable truth that politics has crashed into the buffers of economics..</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">‘Economics’ is an over simplification. The National Audit Office has long reported the lack of financial and managerial clout at the top of Departments of State. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">The whole of the State apparatus, costly in itself, <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>is predicated on the primacy of the ‘policy’ and funds voted for health and education and so on. The revenue for this is then raised from taxation without thought of the dynamics of effectiveness and accountability. That Government walks away having voted the funds has been shown up as costly, dangerous and uncontrolled by the European court of Auditors refusal for 14 years to sign off their Accounts. I expect the same result when the first ever Whole of UK Government accounts are put before Parliament by the Comptroller and Auditor General later this year. This is not<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>to suggest that grants to Surrey County Council are lost to sight but without proper accountability processes we are not far from that. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">It gets worse. In government there is an almost complete lack of the numerate, operational tool, and professional decision-making culture that the circumstances require. We have just been regaled with the unbelievable results from the PFI initiative. £302 to change a plug and the original capital cost deferred and multiplied down the years. Why is government unable to do these things for itself rather than pay so much to others. Does it not do the usual evaluations, such as discounting the cash flow, before setting off on that road ?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">David Cameron has sensed or recognised this huge and very costly elephant in the room by seeking for government departments non-executive directors with clout from outside.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">This whole problem is about to be worsened by the big society and ‘localism’. Who is going to do the management and back-office stuff ? And <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>just when the trend of human evolution and history is moving in the opposite direction. Ever larger infrastructures and standards require broader co-ordination.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">The answer is to completely flush out of the system the present poor quality of dreaming and ineffective politicians. If we want to get back on track we shouldn’t start from here. But a changed centre of gravity would perhaps develop from a new department accountable to the Prime Minister whose function would be akin, for the ship of State, to a naval architect and chief engineer to design and maintain the system architecture. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">The TaxPayers Alliance and locally in Surrey, STAG, can do much from our own experience to begin to change perceptions as to how government and the public sector should operate.</span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-55496580041073602352011-01-18T07:46:00.000-08:002011-01-18T07:46:47.180-08:00Let's learn to use the local authority auditor<blockquote><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">Taxpayers are, or should be, considerably interested in the work and opinions of the auditors of their local authorities and all other public bodies.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">It is intended but not generally realised that assurance is given on value for money and resource utilization as well as the annual accounts.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">This process is currently rendered largely wasted because (a) the financial statements are mired in detail and late, and of (b) bureaucratic language. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Similarly the value for money judgements when written up by auditors are unintelligable to the lay reader and do not extend beyond whether suitable arrangements are in place - not whether achieving.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">In 2012 the Audit Commission is to be scrapped leaving the ‘market’ open for<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>privatisation but in ways that have not yet been worked out. At the same time there is to be the gradual decentralisation of public activity eg Private Health Trusts giving way to GP groups. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example there are now some 11,000 such organisations accounting for some £200bn of public funds, some so small such as parish councils as not to feature even in their own minds as needing to account for our money. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">We should be very concerned that developments do not weaken still further our ability to keep tabs on our money in a proper businesslike environment. We are also as a nation moving into a situation which in Europe has caused the accounts there to be failed by the Court of Auditors for 14 years. How will the first ever UK government consolidated Accounts, for 2009-10, fare when they see the light of day at the end of 2011 ?</span></div></blockquote>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-60654742972577950132011-01-03T13:36:00.000-08:002011-01-12T03:53:54.780-08:00Councils to set parking fees (News report 3rd January 2011)<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">At last. Eric Pickles, the Local Government Secretary says “we’re getting out of the way and it’s up to councils to set the right parking policy for their area”. That includes setting competitive local charges.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">Up until now Government made it “unlawful” to use charges to “raise revenue or as a local tax”. Why ?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">The Local Government Association still says “Councils can’t use parking as a revenue raising exercise but they should have the freedom to set charges at a level which covers the cost of providing parking”. In other words they mustn’t make a profit. Why not ? Especially if it is ‘ploughed back’ as it must be. And more especially because taxpayers paid for the car park in the first place.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">But the LGA view is wrong at a deeper level. The first thing to realise is that in order to meet their requirement it is necessary to pass acres of legislation, codes of practice and so on to define what is cost and when a price is a cost recovery and when revenue raising. I haven’t dared to bury myself in the mountains of stuff trying to do that. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">In practice there is no difference</b>.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">Then Profit and Loss requires a cost accounting system. This is something, and the Audit Commission supports me in this,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>which hasn’t yet come into government consciousness and practice. How do they intend to set prices ? Do they have to account for direct costs, direct costs plus overhead apportionment, marginal costs, or contributions<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>? In practice "actual" cost is meaningless. Cost can only be defined by the question needing answer.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">But set to one side those questions of management tools and technique. There is one simply stated<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>marketing approach which fits the bill. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Charges should be<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>set to achieve if possible say a 5% under-occupancy of spaces at any one time. Higher charges will deter to the detriment of revenue and lower will lead to perpetually full occupancy which also frustrates and may even so yield <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>less revenue. Of course quiet and busy periods might be differentially priced to advantage.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">And there’s more. Optimised revenue gives council management choices. Either to stabilise or reduce council tax, or put a surplus towards development, subject to pay-back calculations, of more spaces and in turn more revenue.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif";">Is there now some small hope that government may at last be seeing the light and will allow new behaviours which will relieve the<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>burden on taxpayers’ shoulders which has been added to exponentially in the past for little discernable benefit to anyone except public employees, managers and councillors. </span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-212907153624456358.post-70905472154838153622010-12-19T07:36:00.000-08:002010-12-27T08:30:00.586-08:00We can't pin down our local elected representatives<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">We never seem to be able to pin down our local elected representatives. Council tax - it always used to be 'nothing to do with us guv' because the government fixed the amount of redistributive grant. This was the excuse for having set an exorbitant council tax increase to balance the books. "If you don't like it change the government". Council tax doesn't do what it says on the tin.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Having not entirely got past that one we turn our attention to spending and whether we are well governed. We are not but then we find that we can't turn to Surrey MPs for support with council tax because there is a chinese wall between them an</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">d councillors. Not only that but we can't see what we are getting for the Party 'brand'.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">So we think some more about this and conclude that we must face up to those who run things and are supposed to be accountable to us. Councillors say "we are elected to represent the people of Surrey. We are not managers." This seems to be an Upstairs/Downstairs idea that the elected ones are only concerned with strategy and policy while the appointed paid officers look after execution and administration.. This is an artificial and unreal distinction in the total system which embraces responsibility and delegated decision-making. It matters of there is bad policy and unproductive or unnecessary process.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">The cost to us is compounded by the many committeess, select or otherwise, all requiring servicing, set up for Party political balance to monitor everything and in so doing dilute the managerial process.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">This all represents a huge unproductive and wasted cost which is nevertheless difficult to measure..</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">And when we go to the voting booth we are short of evidence to inform our judgement such as a timely Annual Report of activity, financial performance and state of affairs as is rquired by law. We are also short of the CVs of those aspiring to take executive responsibility.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">We are campaigning into this dimension and are looking for anecdotal evidence to make the case for better behaviour, and reform. <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Please give us your support because we want a better, less costly, county council. <span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Register with us if you share our ambitions, it will not cost you one penny</span></span></span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0