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Civil servants are being sidelined by ministers desperate to hand public funds to big businesses that too often fail to deliver, a committee of top MPs said yesterday.
Members of the Commons liaison committee called for a parliamentary commission to investigate the Civil Service following a series of high-profile contracting fiascos, which have shown there are "systemic failings" in the way Whitehall spends public money on big schemes.
The committee, which regularly questions Prime Minister David Cameron, cited the collapse of the tendering process for the West Coast rail franchise and the universal credit, G4S and Serco debacles.
In part II of a serialisation of his new book, JOHN McINALLY explores how witch-hunting drives took hold in the Civil Service as the cold war emerged in the wake of WWII
If we can tackle the big issues, like delivering decent public services and affordable state-built and owned housing by making the richest pay a fair amount of tax, Labour can win back the trust and support of the electorate, argues ANDY McDONALD MP
