MoD censured over £1bn 'peacekeeping' bill
MPs unhappy about last-minute bill presented to parliament for Iraq and Afghanistan with no detail as to how the money has been spent
The Ministry of Defence has been censured for sending parliament a last-
minute bill for just over £1bn bill for ‘peacekeping’ operations in Iraq and
Afghanistan, without spelling out in detail how the money has been spent.
The Commons Defence Committee delivered the protest in a special report on
the 2005-06 Spring Supplementary Estimates, revealing it had had to demand a
detailed breakdown of the expenditure.
It said it supported both operations but ‘telling Parliament that the costs
of the deployment to Afghanistan are “around a billion” is not good
enough’ – a reference to a separate estimate of that exercise over the next
five years.
The MPs said the excuse that accurate detailed information was not available
earlier was not acceptable, and said that the practice of waiting until it
was time for the supplementary estimates must stop.
The costs are over and above those the MoD had already budgeted for
maintaining the armed forces.