Tuesday 16 December 2003

And who'll pay for this?

In the previous post I called for public servants to be held responsible for their actions, or, indeed, non-actions.

The enquiry into the Scottish Parliament building fiasco is being conducted a few hundred yards from here. There has been a £360 million overspend (so far), not to mention the cost of the enquiry itself. A million here and a million there - soon we'll be talking real money. Can we expect anyone to be held personally liable? As in actually having to compensate the taxpayer in hard cash? Somehow I don't think so.

Here's what the First Minister says of the enquiry:

"The purpose of the investigation should be to produce a clear public record of events and a set of recommendations for future large-scale public construction projects. I envisage that the report of the investigation would be submitted to the appropriate Parliament Committee to allow further additional scrutiny at that stage.

"People in Scotland rightly expect answers to all of their questions about the way in which the cost to the public purse has escalated, and the decisions and actions which have contributed towards the position in which we now find ourselves."

"Clear public record", recommendations" and possibly even "additional scrutiny".

Here's my recommendation: Find out who screwed up and make them pay for it.