"Firstly, let me do a Nigel and quickly respond to Mr Lockhart's point. I think that the Department of Mysteries could perhaps do with more transparency. I struggle to believe we should scrap it as a whole as a large amount of valuable research on magic and magical theory comes out of the said department.
As for wasteful Ministry Spending. I'm unsure whether not being a part of the Ministry I am necessarily in a position to say. I'm sure Mr Farbage has a much clearer understanding since he has worked with the Financial Office of the Ministry for years. Albeit, I would strongly disagree that foreign aid is a wasteful expenditure. The only thing I would feel comfortable in criticising currently about the Ministry's spending is their postal system. I don't believe that owls are in any way an efficient postal system to use and the amount of food paid for by the State to support them is absurd. I would suggest we employ people to deliver post, especially with the rise of journals wherein we now have a much more limited need for delivering letters. People would be more efficient at delivering parcels. This would also create more employment and produce tax payers."