Perhaps they'd like to try the Rural Payments ...

2010-07-28T07:41:09.789+01:00

Perhaps they'd like to try the Rural Payments Agency, the Benefits Agency, HMRC etc etc etc.
They can certainly dish it out. Now they can take it.

It is interesting. 10 staff work in the Allowance...

2010-07-27T18:13:50.124+01:00

It is interesting. 10 staff work in the Allowances Office in the Scottish Parliament. Between them, they manage all the expenses and allowances for 129 MSPs with no complaints. All items of allowable expenditure are paid, recorded and published on a searchable online database.

Westminster has 650 MPs. If they ran the same kind of operation as the Scottish Parliament we could expect a staff of around 50 - 60. But that is clearly not the case. Even taking into account that they work out of a separate office, I cannot see how IPSA can cost £6.5 million.

But then, looking at their website, IPSA appears to have a cast of thousands with a Chief Executive, a Human Resources Director, a Director of Policy, a Head of Secretariat, a Director of Finance and an Acting Director of Operations/ Deputy Director of Finance.

Can all these people really be necessary? I suggest that what they need is not a lot of senior management posts but one or two executive officers and a team of competent administrators beneath them.

Comments on Tory Bear - right-wing political gossip: IPSA Rage

Perhaps they'd like to try the Rural Payments ...

It is interesting. 10 staff work in the Allowance...