MP stands by attack on fall in standards

THE CHAIRMAN of the Commons Public Accounts Committee, Robert Sheldon, yesterday accused the Prime Minister of being disingenuous when he claimed last week's unprecedented PAC report on the proper conduct of public business did not refer to a decline in standards.

While it was true, Mr Sheldon said, that the report did not specifically say standards had declined, it did point to a number of failings. So grave were those failings that the PAC felt moved - for the first time in 130 years - to produce a checklist reminding civil servants of the standards expected of them. He said the matters raised were 'serious' and that he regarded the report - from a Tory-dominated committee - as critical of the Government.

Mr Sheldon and Sir John Bourn, the Comptroller and Auditor-General, were making a unique joint public appearance before giving evidence to the Civil Service sub-committee of the Treasury and Civil Service Select Committee.

Both men told MPs they were worried about recent scandals. Mr Sheldon said he had been chairman of the PAC for 11 years, but had never come across worse behaviour than that of officials at the Welsh Development Agency.

Pointing to a catalogue of misdemeanours and excesses, - including flights on Concorde, unauthorised redundancy payments and the hiring of a marketing director who had convictions for deception - Mr Sheldon said: 'The WDA did things you would never assume could be done by civil servants.'

The common thread running through all the scandals highlighted by the PAC was the number of outsiders coming into the service. Sir John Bourn said he was worried that when people were appointed to government departments or quangos from the private sector, 'all the emphasis is put on what they bring from outside. More emphasis should be put on what is involved in handling public money'.

Sir John said he could sympathise with the outsiders. 'They are expected to bring in ideas and to obey public values.' He cited the example of one, unnamed executive agency chief who, when being investigated by Sir John's team at the National Audit Office, the public spending watchdog, asked: 'Why are you doing this to me?' ' Sir John said more time should be spent training people in the handling of public money and the vetting of contracts.

Mr Sheldon said difficulties were caused by a change of culture produced by contracting out and initiatives like performance pay and the setting of efficiency targets, which set people against one another.