Mark Brown and Owen Gibson
An article in The Guardian, (6 November 2008) .
Taxpayer-funded organisations handing out money to arts, heritage, voluntary
and sports groups are spending far too much on administration costs and seem
unwilling to work together to bring them down, a Commons committee complains
today.
Research for the public accounts committee shows the nine main grant-givers
sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) gave £1.8bn in
2006-07. A further £200m was spent administering the grants.
Not only did organisations such as Arts Council England (ACE) and English Heritage not
know how much different grants were costing administratively, but the costs varied
widely. In one case it cost the Big Lottery Fund for good causes 3p for each pound
given, compared with the 35p spent in every pound by the Arts Council for grants to
individuals.
The committee looked at grants from £200 to many millions and found there was little
joined-up thinking. It said the example of the US should be followed, where applications
for grants can be made online at a one-stop website.
In evidence to the committee, ACE's chief executive, Alan Davey, said the costs for
smaller grants given to individuals were higher because more one-to-one work was put
in. He cited the case of a Hull novelist who needed £4,000 to give him time to write his
book and also needed the encouragement of ACE's local literary department to develop
his project.
Some members of the committee, during its information-gathering meeting in June,
expressed surprise. Tory MP Philip Dunne said: "I happened yesterday to be at the Hay
book festival, where 140,000 people visited over the 10 days of the festival, and I would
think virtually every single one of them, if they were aware that there was a potential
government handout to start their literary endeavour, would be coming to your door."
Edward Leigh, the public accounts committee chairman, described the amount spent on
administration as "very hefty". He added: "Any organisation awarding grants should
know the cost of administering each of its individual grant programmes and how that
cost compares with others."
He said the DCMS had done little to encourage the bodies to compare costs.
"This makes it all the harder to identify inefficient and wasteful practices."
Leigh added: "There are substantial differences across the sector in the cost of grantmaking, even though administrative processes tend to be similar. This shows that grantmakers must do a lot more to share information and learn from each other, so that
administrative costs can be driven down.
"So far they have been conspicuously unwilling to work together or to contemplate
sharing services, systems or office accommodation. Taxpayers will share this
committee's impatience that progress in this area has been so slow."