Civil servants have much to learn from business This is a laudable aim and anything that makes Whitehall a more competent and cost effective organisation is welcome. Senior mandarins will attend the Major Projects Leadership Academy, a residential course which aims to be about much more than building rafts and solving non-verbal reasoning tests. It will equip our civil servants with skills so taxpayers won't have to pay for management consultants to ensure major items of expenditure, such as computer systems, are delivered on time, on budget and actually work. It's surprising the Civil Service lacks these skills. But then the Cabinet Office's Major Projects Authority has 200 schemes on its hands worth £400bn which is, frankly, too many. It's crucial civil servants know what they're doing, but we're still relying on the organisation too much. Sir Bob Kerslake, head of the Civil Service, reckons his organisation is about a lot more than policy - it's about implementation and delivery, in his words. But we should be delegating far more implementation and delivery to the private sector. It's here that the skills the Leadership Academy hopes to impart already reside. Making civil service leaders more like business leaders is all very well but why not give already proven business leaders a greater role in getting things done for taxpayers? That's an even more effective way of ensuring value for money for taxpayers.