David Goldstone, the government’s new value for money chair, will receive a daily salary rate of £950, it has been reported.
The position was announced by the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as part of Wednesday’s budget statement. She said Goldstone, who will be in post for a year, would “help us realise the benefits from every pound of public spending”.
The position will be responsible for providing advice to the chancellor and chief secretary to the Treasury to save money by reforming systems and improving policy outcomes.
“I am honoured to have been appointed by the chancellor and chief secretary to this important role,” said Goldstone. “I look forward to working within government over the coming year to bring renewed focus to ensuring we deliver maximum value for the public in how money is spent.”
The role, which will be remunerated at a day rate of £950, is independent from the Treasury and Goldstone will be expected to work a monthly average of one day a week.
He is also a non-executive director of the Submarine Delivery Agency and HS2 Ltd, and was previously chief executive of parliament’s Restoration and Renewal Delivery Authority, as well as working as chief operating officer at the Ministry of Defence.
Goldstone also oversaw the government’s £9.3bn investment for the 2012 Olympics, including the Olympic Park venues and infrastructure.
He trained as a Cipfa accountant while at the Audit Commission before moving to Price Waterhouse and then spending 12 years “in the delivery of locally based investment programmes for government”.
Darren Jones, chief secretary to the Treasury, told journalists earlier this month that it was important to have “guardrails” to ensure major public works offered value for money, after years of overspending and delays in big projects.
Jones contrasted Labour’s creation of the new institutions to the approach taken by Truss, who made £45bn of unfunded tax promises while sidelining the Office for Budget Responsibility.
“One of the problems that Liz Truss had was that she disregarded independent checks and balances and expertise, borrowed loads of money for unfunded policies, and we know everything that happened next,” he said.
Jones said “guardrails” were important regardless of considerations in financial markets, to show taxpayers that public money was being well spent. “The reason I refer to the Liz Truss episode is because that’s an example of when you don’t have them,” he added.
A Treasury spokesperson said: “David Goldstone is a highly experienced public sector leader with a track record in delivering complex high value programmes and will bring independent rigour to the government’s approach to improving value for money.”
Source: theguardian.com
