Transparency International UK: "'Secrecy' over public spending report says the 'unnecessary' denial of information could aid corruption." (Just fancy that.)

"Secrecy and lack of information about UK public spending is so great that in more than a third of cases, the ordinary taxpayer can’t even know who has been awarded a Government or local authority contract, a new report has found.

"Spending data was so heavily redacted, the campaign group Transparency International claimed, that in just one month a single London borough – Hackney – recorded £14 million of payments without revealing to the public who got the money.

"Nationally, the Counting the Pennies report said that at least 35 per cent – more than a third - of published local and central government tender data did not even show who was awarded the contract.

"... The result, said Duncan Hames, the director of Transparency International UK, was that people may be getting away with corruption in public office."

Counting the Pennies 1

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The Economist
The biggest loophole of all
Having launched and led the battle against
offshore tax evasion,
America is now part of the problem