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Treasury Select Committee to get power of veto over OBR appointments
by James Phillipps on Jul 15, 2010 at 12:29
The Treasury Select Committee has been given the power of veto over appoints to the Office for Budget Responsibility by Chancellor George Osborne.
In a surprise move at today’s TSC meeting, Osborne said the move would help build the credibility of the Office as an independent body.
The Chancellor will continue to initially appoint his preferred candidates and he stopped short of giving the Committee the authority to sack OBR officials while they are serving their terms.
‘The appointments will be made by the Chancellor, but subject to a confirmation hearing with the Committee [who will have] the power to veto,’ Osborne said.
He added that OBR members will also have to receive approval from the Committee again if they are re-appointed after their initial five year term, but said that he believed that allowing the Committee to sack members if they lost confidence in them risked politicizing the body and undermining its independence.
The OBR has come under fire recently with chairman Sir Alan Budd (pictured) set to leave his post earlier than expected, prompting rumours about pressure being placed on him by the Treasury, which he later denied.
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3 comments so far. Why not have your say?
Julian Stevens
Jul 15, 2010 at 13:04
I'll bet a good few tens of thousands of people out here wouldn't mind at all if the TSC was also granted powers of veto over the FSA's various barny initiatives and profligacies.
But then, because the FSA isn't funded from central government, both it and the Treasury cling stubbornly to the lie that it's independent of government. IT ISN'T!!
A bit of basic honesty in the world of financial services regulation wouldn't go at all amiss.
report thisDave Greenhill
Jul 15, 2010 at 16:42
So one quango can usurp another quango?
Where does the buck actually stop?
1/ Who are these people?
2/ What do they actually do?
3/ What are they paid?
4/ Are they of any importance at all?
If someone fails to perform, do thay have to commit hari-kiri by hanging themself by their old school tie?
5/ Is it any wonder that I am a cynic?
report thisCallum Morrison
Jul 15, 2010 at 20:25
So the institution of parliament is imposing itself on the activities of the party of the Conservatives!
The OBR is 'political chaff' as under the phoney guise of indpendence, it will drawn the exocets of media criticism away from Osborne whilst the Treasury imposes draconian cuts on the populous. I comment not on whether those cuts are right or wrong, rather, point to the big deception that is the independence of the OBR; and which probably caused red Budd to tender his resignation.
With regard to parliament's Treasury Select Committee (TSG), I rather enjoyed its last public outing when it called the mandarins of Scottish banking to account for their actions; the chairman of the TSG was a very sensible Scotsman: John McFall
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