Brown's Olympic structure under fire
03/08/2007 |
 |
 |
So just who is in charge of the London Olympics? Five weeks after Gordon Brown's reshuffle the Department of Culture, Media and Sport still proclaims on its website that "we are the lead government department for the 2012 Olympic Games", which may be news to Tessa Jowell, the Olympics minister.
Her new base is in the Cabinet Office - a five-minute stroll from the DCMS - and she has made great play of the fact that she reports directly to the prime minister. But the 50 civil servants in the Government Olympic Executive are based at the DCMS, while James Purnell, the culture secretary, will steer through funding cuts to the lottery good causes to pay for the Games.
Predictably the Conservatives have labelled the reorganisation a "mess" but senior officials in the London organising committee have also privately condemned the set-up as unnecessarily complex, while relieved that Jowell's survival ensures continuity.
A DCMS spokesman said: "We disagree it is complicated. Tessa is able to focus on the Olympics while working across government departments."
Even so, whether it is the "simple and accountable government support structure" called for by the National Audit Office is open to question.
And do not expect much detailed scrutiny from MPs either. Parliamentary questions on the Olympics will last precisely 10 minutes once a month - barely long enough for Jowell to draw breath at the dispatch box.
(Source: Guardian.co.uk)
|
| Back |
|
|
|
|
 |
