Dear Editor

Michael Morris (Island Soapbox July 19) is so correct, stating the lack of reference to wasteful public expenditure of taxpayers’ money by any of the candidates; hence the status quo in maintaining the corruption and lack of transparency awarding contracts.

There is nothing democratic or transparent about how our money is spent: this is controlled by non-elected civil servants and local government non-elected executive administrators, who enjoy a lifetime of non-accountability living off the public purse.

Here, for example, we all see the waste and failure to deliver by Island Roads under the not-fit-for-purpose PFI contract.

However, worse is the continued endorsement, dismissive attitude and indifference by the Isle of Wight Council’s elected representatives, combined with their failure to check, instead just rubber stamping, any of Island Roads’ diktats.

The problem is that with nearly 2 million administrators in local government and the civil service out of the 5.9m public sector workers, combined with the organisations awarded the contracts, they all enjoy a lifetime of non-accountability living off the public purse.

Fully independent auditors with commercial expertise need to be appointed to a) check each public sector contract, display transparency in the tendering process and publish to ensure value, with commercial confidentiality clauses scrapped in any public sector contract; and b) check that the contract is being carried out as specified.

Britain has never been so wealthy, yet never been so wasteful. Until transparency and accountability is introduced into the public sector, and the media hold them to account, the standard of management will continue to decline, the corruption continues, with contracts being awarded that could have been done better and at a fraction of the price.

Jason Arnold, Niton