Wheelie-bin procurement

The Finance Committee of the Parliament crossed swords with Finance Minister Tom McCabe yesterday. The Scotsman report of the session is here; it highlights the sparring between Mr McCabe and Ms Wendy Alexander. The official report is here but I would suggest that it is principally for anoraks.

Nevertheless, some points of interest. Mr McCabe's opening statement seemed rather combative - for example:

"I am, however, less keen to enter into sterile debates about what constitutes a
management saving and what constitutes an efficient government saving. Our
saving money for the public of Scotland while delivering the same outputs is the
kind of efficiency that the public wants to see in government. I say bluntly
that if some people want to convene cheese and wine parties to discuss the
semantics, then that is their business, but it will not be my business within
the Executive."

And I am not sure that the Minister answered any of Ms Alexander's first three questions.

Finally, a Ministerial quote that will surely appear in sayings of the year:

"We will not have any more wheelie-bin procurers than we need. I would like
to reassure people in Scotland about that; I am sure that they will sleep easier
tonight now that they have heard that."