Anent the ongoing controversy surrounding Edinburgh's proposed airport rail link and £700m+ tram line (surely it needs to be lines plural before you can really call it a scheme?), the government has called in the Auditor General to check that the figures add up before any further progress is made.
Hurrah etc, you might think. But despite the fact that both audit reports will be completed within a fortnight, Labour's transport spokesman Des McNulty is crying foul, on the grounds that he does not support using the Auditor General to "overturn policy decisions".
R-i-g-h-t... so once a decision has been made, no matter how bad it looks to be, you need to press on anyway, and the only role for the Auditor General is after the money has already been wasted, whereupon the McNultys of this world will intone piously that 'lessons have been learned' and that we all now need to 'move on'? Aye, right...
So, top marks to John Swinney, then, for calling in the auditors before it becomes too late. If all the figures stack up, then the pro-tram and underground station lobby have nothing to fear. If on the other hand the figures don't stack up, would it be too much to ask for just a little humility from the 'damn fools who keep yelling to push on'?
Probably.
UPDATE: Since the story first appeared on the BBC website, the bold Tavish Scott has shoved his oar in. He really does seem to be on a kamikaze mission at the moment...
Showing posts with label EARL. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EARL. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Thursday, March 15, 2007
£9bn... Do I Hear £12bn?
Having just come out of a horrific accountancy exam this lunchtime, I'm loathe to start talking about numbers. However, with today's confirmation that the official cost of the 2012 London Olympics has hit £9.3bn, I'm afraid I can't help myself.
When I last blogged on this and mentioned a figure of £10bn, the official cost was still £2.4bn. Nonetheless, the following day (21 November 2006), it was announced that costs had increased by £900m to £3.3bn.
Appearing before the Commons culture, media and sport committee, Minister Tessa Jowell told us that this rise was partly due to a doubling in the price of steel, along with a decision to revise transport costs to take into account inflation (!) in the years to 2012. It also included an extra £400m to pay "delivery partner" CLM to make sure the games came in on budget and on time.
Jowell duly gave assurances to the committee that 'This project is under control. Cost control is a daily part of the rigour'. Yet just four short months later, another £6bn has been added to a figure which, according to Jowell, already represented a project 'under control'.
This is just one project amongst many big infrastructure projects due to come 'on-line' around 2012, including the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, an Edinburgh Tram Network and the start of a replacement Forth Road Bridge. Since the date of the Olympics can't move, the only variable that can be altered is the amount of money we throw at the project, doubtless to the detriment of the costs on other projects - and don't the contractors just know it.
'Dripping roast' doesn't even begin to describe the bonanza that awaits the construction industry at our expense. Most public sector projects seem to run over budget and behind schedule, but the shower of blisteringly incompetent Panglossians we have in government right now seem determined to set some new kind of Olympic record of their own. Quite frankly, I wouldn't even trust them to sell union jack tat to spectators outside the games.
When I last blogged on this and mentioned a figure of £10bn, the official cost was still £2.4bn. Nonetheless, the following day (21 November 2006), it was announced that costs had increased by £900m to £3.3bn.
Appearing before the Commons culture, media and sport committee, Minister Tessa Jowell told us that this rise was partly due to a doubling in the price of steel, along with a decision to revise transport costs to take into account inflation (!) in the years to 2012. It also included an extra £400m to pay "delivery partner" CLM to make sure the games came in on budget and on time.
Jowell duly gave assurances to the committee that 'This project is under control. Cost control is a daily part of the rigour'. Yet just four short months later, another £6bn has been added to a figure which, according to Jowell, already represented a project 'under control'.
This is just one project amongst many big infrastructure projects due to come 'on-line' around 2012, including the Edinburgh Airport Rail Link, an Edinburgh Tram Network and the start of a replacement Forth Road Bridge. Since the date of the Olympics can't move, the only variable that can be altered is the amount of money we throw at the project, doubtless to the detriment of the costs on other projects - and don't the contractors just know it.
'Dripping roast' doesn't even begin to describe the bonanza that awaits the construction industry at our expense. Most public sector projects seem to run over budget and behind schedule, but the shower of blisteringly incompetent Panglossians we have in government right now seem determined to set some new kind of Olympic record of their own. Quite frankly, I wouldn't even trust them to sell union jack tat to spectators outside the games.
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