And so to another story of exceptional financial waste and total incompetence of management that only a government oversee. Back in 2000 one of the many, many legacies that Blair wanted to set in place was the city academy programme. So far only 46 of the 400 of these academies have actually opened yet the government has managed to spend £20m on consultants and £28m on project managers!
Incredibly the National Audit Office has said that two-thirds of the first academies had gone over budget by an average of £3 million. What in the name of the sweet Lord are these advisors and project managers doing for over £50m? To be honest I have no idea, but that is mainly because the only person to comment on it is... you've guessed it - a government spokesman. Apparently they play a "key role in ensuring all aspects of the project are delivered to the required specification on time and on budget". We've had some pretty poor government spokesmen quotations on PL in the past, but this one is a cracker. The projects are neither on time nor on budget, buddy!