‘Staggering’ Whitehall waste revealed by Sir Philip Green

"Staggering" levels of Whitehall waste are costing the taxpayer billions of pounds every year, retail tycoon Sir Philip Green said today.

The billionaire, whose Arcadia chain includes Topshop, released the results of his study showing that government departments consistently failed to make the most of their "scale and buying power" to keep bills down.

Spending on everything from mobile phones to stationery, IT and empty office space could be drastically reduced if stronger central controls and uniform buying policies were imposed on suppliers, Sir Philip's report concluded.

In his report, Sir Philip found:

*Centralising telecoms costs could save around £700 million a year

*71,000 central government buyers spend up to £1,000 a month using "procurement cards" without any checks

*£104 million a year is spent on printing, with some departments paying 11p per leaflet while others pay £1.31

*£38 million a year is spent on 400,000 overnight hotels in London alone, with prices per room varying from £77 to £117

*Some £84 million goes on office supplies, with prices paid for ink cartridges varying from £86 to £398 and on paper from £8 a box to £73

*£61 million is spent on laptop and desktop computers, from 13 different IT services providers, with no standard specification across departments and prices paid per laptop varying from £353 to £2,000.

Sir Philip also criticised Whitehall departments for paying their suppliers too quickly.

He found that the norm in most departments is to pay suppliers in five days, compared with the standard 30-day period for most private-sector transactions, and 45 days demanded by some bigger companies.

If the Government demanded a minimum of 30 days of credit from suppliers, it would save hundreds of millions of pounds in financing costs.

However, the previous government made it a matter of explicit policy to pay suppliers as quickly as possible, to help them through the recession.

The tycoon, who once tried to take over M&S, was appointed by the Prime Minister on August 13 to review government efficiency. His focus was the procurement of goods and services like IT, travel, print and office supplies and the management of the Government's property portfolio.

He and his financial lieutenant Ian Grabiner were given access to departments' resource accounts and information on government contracts and leases. Their study reveals the poor quality of much data on where and how government spends its money.

Sir Philip said: "There is no reason government should not be as efficient as any business. Any large organisation would want to use its credit rating and scale to buy efficiently. The conclusion is clear — credit rating and scale in virtually every department has not been used to make government spending efficient."

The Minister for the Cabinet Office, Francis Maude, said: "This shows that for too long there has been no coherent strategy to make government operate more efficiently."