The trouble with skeletons is that they have an untimely habit of jumping out of the cupboard, just when you think that the door has finally been bolted.
Arts Council England (ACE) quite rightly faced a storm of indignation when it was revealed in 1999 that its systems and processes for evaluating and monitoring the progress of Lottery funded capital projects had been less than rigorous. But to be fair to ACE, it has, since these embarrassing revelations were made, gone to great lengths to tighten up its act. These efforts are recognised in the most recent report by the National Audit Office (p1), and whilst the Head of the NAO, Sir John Bourn has identified ways in which systems could be improved still further, he appears to be realistic about the extent to which ACE can influence the course of events and prevent such catastrophic overspends happening. By contrast, the comments made by Conservative MP Edward Leigh, chairman of the Commons? Public Accounts Committee for whom the report was prepared, have been far more critical. He has been widely reported as telling ACE to ?get a grip? ? a phrase he regularly bandies about in Parliament, presumably because he knows it makes good copy. But surely, at some point the blame for such problems should be laid at doors other than those of the funding bodies who are asked time and again to cough up to make good the shortfalls. Instead, shouldn?t credit be going to those organisations such as Shakespeare?s Globe and Malvern Festival Theatre, which have proved that it is actually possible to deliver a project pretty much according to plan. In the spirit of helpful suggestions, for those that don?t deliver the goods, why not despatch ACE chairman Gerry Robinson, to ?Show Them Who?s Boss? (see BBC2 Wednesdays at 9.00pm). Now that?s one reality TV show we?d happily pay to see!
Published: 19-05-2003