Stephen Morgan MP has labelled the £13bn of waste revealed in Labour’s ‘Dossier of Waste in the Ministry of Defence’ as ‘unacceptable’.
The report found that the Government has wasted at least £13bn of taxpayers’ money on 67 officially confirmed cases of MoD waste since 2010.
The new revelations of billions of pounds of Ministry of Defence waste comes at the same time as government cutting Army numbers and freezing forces pay.
Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey says that Labour’s audit of waste shows that “the MoD is a uniquely failing department” and that “Ministers are failing British troops and British taxpayers”.
Labour’s audit examines the extent of waste within the MoD, the cost of which could have been avoided or reduced by better MoD judgement or management.
Labour’s analysis found that Ministers’ mismanagement at the Ministry of Defence has led to £4.8bn of taxpayers’ money being handed out for cancelled contracts and £5.6bn on overspent projects.
If this wasted public money had been reduced, funding could have been available to strengthen the UK’s Armed Forces and avoid cuts forced by budget pressures to troops, planes, ships and vital equipment.
The National Audit Office (NAO) has declared the defence equipment plan “unaffordable” for the last four years in a row, and the Public Accounts Committee said that the Ministry of Defence’s procurement system is “broken and is repeatedly wasting taxpayers’ money”.
Labour has said it would make the Ministry of Defence the first department subject to its new Office for Value for Money’s tough spending regime and commission the NAO to conduct an audit of Ministry of Defence waste to get to grips with these problems.
The Member of Parliament for Portsmouth South, Stephen Morgan, said:
“The Ministry of Defence has blown billions of pounds at the same time as cutting Army numbers and freezing forces pay.
“Labour’s Dossier confirms the scale of waste in MoD budgets and Ministers have got no grip on the problems. Tory waste is failing forces families and taxpayers in Portsmouth and others right across the country.
“This is unacceptable, but Government has no serious intent to get a grip of these deep-seated problems. Only Labour has a plan to tackle them and will continue to hold Ministers to account on this mess.”
Commenting on Labour’s “Dossier of Waste in the Ministry of Defence”, Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey, also said:
“The Ministry of Defence is a uniquely failing department. Labour’s audit confirms at least £13bn in taxpayers’ money has been wasted since 2010, with £4bn wasted while the present Defence Secretary has been in post.
“Ministers are failing British troops and British taxpayers, and this audit is Labour’s first step in fixing the failing system. We would ensure the Ministry of Defence is the first department subject to our new Office for Value for Money’s new tough spending regime and commission the NAO to get to the bottom of these problems.”
