THE Treasury minister has criticised Health over the near £1m. it has wasted on childcare.

The subsidy, which cost HSSD around £100,000 a year since 2001 and has paid for some places which were not even used, should not have been allowed to continue for so long, according to Deputy Charles Parkinson. He added that what has happened justified the argument for zero-based budgeting.

That would mean the department having to re-evaluate the money it needed for such a scheme annually.

‘There has been a lack of financial control and this should not have been allowed to continue for so long,’ he said. ‘If there was zero-based budgeting, departments would have to identify every line of expenditure and this would be harder to overlook.’

Deputy Parkinson (pictured) said the answer lay in controlling budgets – ‘knowing what’s being spent and where and constantly questioning whether the spend is appropriate.’

Asked which department responsibility for scrutinising the budget lay with, he said primarily HSSD. ‘We have an internal audit function and there’s the Public Accounts Committee, but they cannot check every transaction that happens in the States so it’s down to departments to ensure that money is spent wisely.’

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