A quango by any other name (From Lancashire Telegraph)

A quango by any other name

11:08am Thursday 9th July 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(1)

David Cameron is pledging to reduce the number of unelected quangos to save money and increase accountability.

This weekend the government announced a review of public bodies in a bid to ensure cash goes to frontline services.

Quangos are supposed to enable specialized staff to make decisions in important fields free from the political preference of Government, but their unelected and costly nature has been criticized in recent years.

The Tories had their chance to do away with them when Thatcher was in power, they simply did nothing, because a lot of them were made up of business types, so the proof this time will be in the pudding.

What I would like to know though, is Cameron really talking about disbanding quangos?

Or is he actually planning to rebrand them, perhaps with a different acronym whilst essentially keeping the same groups in place.

It may not be right to say so but many quangos are in place because there is a job that needs doing and if removed they will have to be replaced with something.

I strongly favour small government and cutting bureaucracy but each quango needs to be judged on its merits or we risk throwing out the baby with the bath water.

If it transpires that most quangos are nothing but a waste of time and money then fine, scrap them, what we must not do is take an ill-informed knee-jerk stance.

Coun Salim Mulla