Always ahead of the game, the Daily Telegraph gets its April Fool's Day story in early

The Whitehall efficiency drive that increased costs A seven-year government efficiency programme has backfired and increased costs for the taxpayer by hundreds of millions of pounds, a public spending watchdog said. 10:00PM GMT 06 Mar 2012 Whitehall departments have spent £1.4 billion in an attempt to save £159  million by sharing “back-office’’ functions such as personnel and procurement ... The [National Audit Office] discovered that the Department for Transport system had so far cost £129 million more to set up and run than it had saved ... Another unit, set up by Research Councils UK, has recorded a net cost to the taxpayer so far of £126 million ...

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