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Belfast News:
Northern Ireland is Quango Land
The Northern Ireland Executive has now
released its 2010 Budget and in it, they
appear to reflect the public mood, by
stating their intention to take on the
Quangos.
In his budget
statement the DUP Finance Minister Sammy
Wilson stated that a review and
rationalisation of Quangos also known as
Arm Length Bodies would take
place. In a
later question the Minister stated that
this review would take place by the Budget
Review Group, as changes would require a
bill to be passed as some of these quangos
are set out in legislation. The
Finance Minister's DUP party colleague
Lord Morrow welcomed the move set out in
the budget statement. indicating that
Northern Ireland is not only Quango Land,
but that you could get rid of a couple of
thousand of them and still not have
resolved it.
Editorial The
public mood in Northern Ireland appears to
be that Quangos are unacceptable and the
DUP Minister's comments are welcomed. It
is time that these Quangos, many of whose
names are not even known to the public,
never mind accountable to them, are
abolished. The
Executive should not under estimate the
public desire to see such bodies bodies
removed from Northern Ireland life and to
see previously outsourced business
functions brought back in house. Arm
length companies who are able to hide from
public accountability, who fall outside
the Freedom of Information Act but
exercise control over massive public expenditure,
are no longer acceptable. If
the Northern Ireland Executive follow
swiftly through with this populist policy,
it will go some way to repair their image
in the eyes of the public, many of whom
see them, as an unnecessary expense. Given
that many Quangos and Arm Length Companies
have politicians, their advisors, representatives
and even friends on their board, it may
still fall to the public to help them
focus on the urgency of abolishing such
bodies, in the upcoming 2011 NI Assembly
Elections. Last
Updated: 16th December 2010
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