Scrooge must wrest control of civil service from the big spenders

COLM McCARTHY is a wily old fox. From past involvement in the late 1980s, he learned the mechanics of Government finances. Every year an annual ritual commences in early summer. Each line department submits its proposed budgetary outline for the following year. A series of bilateral meetings then takes place with dedicated officials in the Department of Finance. This arm wrestle usually involves incremental adjustment for inflation and the occasional initiative.

Over the past decade, due to bountiful tax revenue largesse, Finance was a pussy cat for every pet political project and new quango. McCarthy’s modus operandi turned this process on its head. He asked each spending department to submit their own evaluation paper of each programme — the benefits, justification and costs.