Thanks for the link. I agree with your argument that management programmes are useful and necessary in principle. Previously I had only considered situations where management programmes might only really be justified where there was not difficulty in attribution of support services to programmes and in particular how can allocate salaries of those above programme manager level to programmes.
I guess one answer to your flexibility to meet unforeseen circumstance argument is that appropriate virement rules could compensate but that would require inter programme virement to be at the discretion of the line ministry (up to whatever limit the rule applied) and that opens up the stable door.
