Middle management is not blameless though.
In a project costing £1bn there are so many noughts that even a £10m saving barely registers.
In one case a senior civil servant - B1 ish - left his briefcase behind.
Someone drove to his office, collected the briefcase, drove to an airfield, delivered it to a Canberra crew, who flew it to a remote Scottish airfield, where it was then delivered to where its owner had wanted it.
In the great scheme of things it was a 'dot' on the accounts sheet. It was a total waste of money because the meeting went ahead anyway and the CS had left.
Now if budgets were devolved so that real decisions on expenditure had to be made at the petty cash end we might get some cumulative savings.
I know the old saw, spend upto or over budget otherwise it will be cut next year. Why not do it on a 'profit' and 'bonus' basis?
Not the "oh he's a jolly good chap, sterling job in adverse circumstances - enhanced bonus, next - "
But "Ah, this team has come in £100k under budget this year. We can afford to pay them a £10k bonus. The £90k can be rolled forward or put into the nice to have pot."
Real saving. Real bonus.