If you go down the "government should be cost efficient" route, you end up with things like [/PPI/] which, whilst making the government more cost efficient, has thoroughly damaged many vital UK services.
Edit: By PPI, I meant PPP/PFI. I conflated the two into one incorrect abbreviation. Apologies.
Indeed, I can imagine if every small bit of work had to have a full analysis of ROI etc. then the whole bureaucracy intended to prevent the wasting of money would end us costing far more than could ever be saved.
If the Ordnance Survey want to do even more cool stuff with a tiny bit of my taxpayers money then they have my blessing.
What are you talking about? PPI was a private-industry thing. PPP is regarded as a failure partly because it damaged service provision but mostly because it didn't actually save money.
PPP was not about government efficiency not has it improved efficiency. PPP was about trading a short immediate cost (infrastructure build) against a long one (rent). It was a cash flow measure to knock as much deficit on the head up front and reduce unemployment. This was purely a political measure for the government to "not look as shit".
Of course in the long term it's a shitty deal for citizens, lots of political cash back-handers were taken and we've now got long-term rents to pay and stuck with low grade contract outfits.
But that's what happens when you put capitalism and socialism in the same pot and stir it.
Because we're throwing a pile of cash away on fighting foreign wars we can't win and killing people rather than abolishing PPP and concentrating on looking after all the sick people at home.
Edit: By PPI, I meant PPP/PFI. I conflated the two into one incorrect abbreviation. Apologies.