Future Conservative ministers and their civil servants should be prepared for embarrassments when details of all significant government spending are published online, George Osborne has warned.
In a keynote speech on Thursday, the shadow chancellor pledged that a Tory administration would publish online all spending items over £25,000.
"I know that it may create awkward stories for ministers from time to time," he said. "But that is the exactly the point."
Osborne argued that "when people don't know how their money is spent, it is much easier for a spendaholic culture to set in".
He added: "When we open up the books to the public, there is a clear imperative on politicians and civil servants to ensure that only those projects that can be justified to the public will go ahead."
The shadow chancellor also said that central government could learn from Conservative-run councils.
Osborne said councils have dealt with budget constraints similar to those being faced in central government.
"I want the Conservative Party to learn from what local Conservative councils are doing right now, as they are dealing with many of the constraints that we may face very soon," he said.
While the party in Westminster is developing policies for delivering public services in an era of restricted budgets, he argued, local councils have "got on with doing it".
"When it comes to rooting out waste and cutting costs, or improving services through innovative new policies, Conservative councils are showing it can be done," he added.
Osborne highlighted the work of Windsor Council and the Greater London Authority in publishing detailed information of their spending online.
And in Hammersmith and Fulham, he said, councillors' allowances have been frozen to the benefit of education and policing.
