She said: "Since I became an Assembly Member I have been amazed by the number of
quangos and review commissions that the (Welsh) Government set up.
Reform Scotland submitted Freedom of Information requests to the 71
quangos who receive funding from the Scottish Government.
"We are more transparent about
quangos and who works for them than any Government before.
Mr Maude said a further 118 bodies would be merged and another 171 "substantially" reformed in the long-awaited "bonfire of the
quangos".
But most Governments eventually discover that arms-length bodies are quite useful ways of taking tough decisions out of political hands, and thus end up creating new
quangos.
The Scottish Council for Postgraduate Medical and Dental Education will be abolished as part of a long-awaited "bonfire of the
quangos".
State Department, either directly or funneled through one or more of the
QUANGOs. The nonprofits also provided indispensable supplies: computers, fax machines, T-shirts with clenched fists emblazoned in the center, spray paint intended for scrawling anti-Milosevic graffiti.
Now their position is under challenge' by appointed bodies which they see as 'domain intruders, often viewed with resentment and suspicion.' They are run by nominated appointees whose number 'greatly exceeds the number of locally-elected councillors.' In the West Midlands, he says,
Quango members outnumber councillors by two to one.
Essentially, the word '
quango' is an umbrella beneath which a tremendous variety of organisations shelter.
A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "When this coalition Government came into office we carried out a complete overview of the
quango landscape and we are now delivering the largest overhaul of public bodies in a generation.
Mr Maude declared it was the start of a process to "curtail the
quango state", but admitted it would be painful.
"But today's
quango cull is neither about efficiency or even saving money as ministers seem very vague about the finances, despite the job losses involved.
Taxpayers' Alliance chief, Matthew Elliott, told Sunday Mirror last night: "This is a huge bill and most people in Northern Ireland will be amazed at how big the
quango sector has got.
Drawn up jointly by the Economic Research Council thinktank and udependent Global Vision, it suggested that, on present trends, Brussels was likely to virtually double its "
quango state" to 70 taxpayer-funded bodies by 2026.
The
quango state should be dismantled, but it is unclear whether the politicians in London have the stomach to do it.
