Gordon Brown has bailed out Mr Money-waster himself, David Miliband. More than £300m worth of taxpayers’ money has been used to compensate for another Government IT cock up – this time a computer system that failed to pay thousands of farmers subsidies that had been paid to the government by the European Community. The Government sat on this money for six months before finally paying it out, but in classically incompetent style missed the deadline for claiming the money back from the EU.
But don’t worry; the Treasury has said that “the money allocated was an estimate of the cash the ministry might have to pay if it is "fined" by the EU for not making the payments on time”. So what? It’s still £300m worth of taxpayers’ money that wouldn’t have been spent if you had your house in order. Richard Bacon MP sums it up rather well - "The sheer incompetence and ineptitude of this government in handling [the matter] has now been compounded by them screwing the taxpayer as well."