The Treasury is the only one tasked with providing the opposite impulse, to constrain how the resources of the government and, implicitly, of the country are expended. [...] As well as reflecting differences of opinion about the orthodoxy as a theory, they often reflected criticism of the frameworks and procedures the Treasury used to put its beliefs into action, the culture of its workforce, and the sheer imbalance of power that the finance ministry exhibited in its relations with the rest of government. [...] Being ‘public enemy number one for the rest of government’ is a feature of the system, not a bug HM Treasury is the sole ‘guardian’ in the UK central government’s budget process, acting to contain the impulses of the other government departments, agencies and other public bodies and the interests they represent. [...] The majority of those we spoke to from outside the Treasury felt that bids would be assessed on the merit of the economic case, or the return expected on the marginal pound spent – the blunt ranking of projects by their BCRs that the Treasury itself recognises as being far from sufficient. [...] This was echoed by the Government Office for Science’s analysis of the Treasury in the 2010s, which concluded the Treasury was “better at listening to what others have to say rather than truly engaging in discussion or debate”.29 The problem of secretiveness to the outside world is not unique to the Treasury.
- Pages
- 55
- Published in
- United Kingdom
