Would you trust State Treasurer Mike Baird to add up your Tuck shop money?

On the 15 October 2012 on this blog when explaining; "Why O'Farrell's Liberal Education Cuts Are Wrong", I said:" 

"My greatest concern with the Government is that its members do not have the intellectual ability to manage the huge responsibilities required of executive government. Has the NSW Government given any thought to the consequences of its actions?" 

Last week after the Auditor General for NSW examined the NSW State Budget he found $1 billion. Instead of a big Labor "black hole" deficit of $337 million there is now a surplus of $680 million. 

How can that happen? 

This is the State that is so broke there has to be $1.7billion cuts to education, 800 TAFE teachers have to be sacked, 15000 public servants have to be sacked, the State's assets like Ports and Electricity have to be sold, preschool hours have to be halved; all by a Treasurer whose performance is described by the State's Auditor General as follows: 

"There is a lack of effective financial management capability in this state and it must improve" 

The Auditor General would you believe found: 

"37 accounting errors of more than $20 million each, including some that were more than $1 billion". 

I suppose I should leave it to the Auditor General's own words to describe what should be in the forefront of the O'Farrell governments mind as it seeks to govern this State on behalf of the people of NSW: 

"The NSW Government is a billion-dollar business, it's not a school tuck shop." 

The people of NSW deserve better than State Treasurer Mike Baird, and the O'Farrell government. 

Ask yourself this question. If you were the Chief Financial Officer of a multi-billion dollar business, and you were a billion dollars out because you could not "add up" what would happen to you? 

Now State Treasurer Mike Baird is going to ask the Auditor General to help him prepare next year's budget so he does not make "adding up" mistakes again. 

Why don't you Treasurer, tell the people of NSW what all the highly paid treasury employees are supposed to be doing? 

I am happy to donate to you an abacus or even an old fashion adding machine. Not only that, I am happy to teach you how to use them. 

The Auditor General cannot help with the State Budget. This misunderstands his independent role of checking and scrutinising the financial management of the government of the day. 

The feeling I had a few weeks ago that the Liberal Government just lacked competence has been shown to be true. Heaven help the people of this State.