The MoJ Gravy Train

From the Mail online:-

Ministry of Justice orders an urgent probe into former civil servants helping private firms to win multi-million-pound contracts

The Ministry of Justice has started an urgent inquiry after The Mail on Sunday uncovered evidence that ex-civil servants were boasting of Government connections while working for private firms to secure multi-million-pound contracts in Britain and abroad. This newspaper found several senior MoJ officials recently left Whitehall to take up jobs with a consultancy.

In the months before they departed, the consultancy’s UK branch had helped secure contracts worth more than £600 million for a controversial US firm to run probation services across swathes of the South East, and a Northamptonshire young offenders’ unit. They had worked for the commercial arm of the MoJ – shut down last year after disclosures it was to be paid £6 million to ‘reform’ the prison system in Saudi Arabia.

This operation, Just Solutions International, closed in September. Its former chief Tony Challinor, now a director of consultancy TDPi, boasts of using experience and knowledge gained in government in the private sector. His profile on business networking site LinkedIn says he had led a Ministry of Justice team to ‘scope and develop solutions’ for governments and criminal justice agencies around the world, adding: ‘I am very pleased to be able to continue to develop and deliver this work through TDPi.’

Former civil servants must not ‘exploit privileged access to contacts in Government or sensitive information’ gained in their duties. If a job risks breaching these rules, it must be approved by a Whitehall committee. Mr Challinor is one of several ex-mandarins at TDPi to whom the checks were apparently not properly applied. The firm’s website mentions Sibylle Batten, who led the MoJ’s International and Market Development Unit, and ‘has extensive experience in business and partnership development’.

Sources told The Mail on Sunday that TDPi is looking at contracts in Nigeria, Afghanistan and Somalia, where it hopes to ‘rehabilitate’ pirates. Its director Rebecca Grattan is also chief operating officer of MTCnovo, the British branch of prisons firm MTC. Its successful bids to run probation services in London and Thames Valley and the Rainsbrook youth detention centre were organised by TDPi’s sister company. By 2021, the income from these will top £600 million.

In the US, MTC has been beset by scandal. Last year a Texas immigration detention centre it ran was destroyed when prisoners rioted. The state of Mississippi is facing class-action lawsuits from prisoners in MTC-run jails who allege they endured violence and were denied healthcare.

Criminal justice expert Harry Fletcher branded it ‘outrageous’ that a firm with such a record was to run Rainsbrook. MTCnovo said it plans to bid for further UK contracts. The Ministry of Justice said it had started ‘an immediate investigation with support from the Cabinet Office’ as a result of the findings.

Asked about the probe, Mrs Grattan said: ‘Both Tony Challinor and Sibylle Batten have followed the recommended procedures. Neither individual is working in any capacity for MTCnovo nor has done so in the past.’ Mr Challinor and Ms Batten did not respond to requests for comment.

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This from the Guardian:-

Challinor, who was also head of commercial development for the prisons and probation service, says in his Linkedin profile: “After a brief period of retirement from the UK civil service I am leading a new company building on the work I previously delivered.” He left his role as head of commercial development at the national offender management service in December after more than four years in the post.

Challinor goes on in his profile to highlight his experience in creating a dedicated MoJ team to develop solutions for governments and criminal justice agencies around the world and says he hopes to develop this work through the TDPi consultancy. The paper also named a second former MoJ official who had a senior role in the department’s international and market development unit.

Selous added in a written ministerial statement to MPs that the MoJ had improved its commercial capability in the last six months by doubling the senior commercial experts monitoring work with the private sector.

A spokeswoman for TDPi told the Mail on Sunday that Challinor had followed the recommended procedures and had never worked for MTC Novo. Challinor declined to comment.

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Blimey:-

"If these allegations prove to be true then the TR bid process would have been utterly unfair with some bidders being informed exactly what to say or do to win government contracts worth millions. Presumably those organisations that lost out will be able to seek compensation from the government as the bidding process would have been corrupt."

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Seen on Twitter:-

"So culprits are ex-civil servants? No impropriety by Grayling in awarding all those CRC contracts to his pal Lord Blackwell?"

"Grayling awarded CRC contracts to firms led by Tory grandees. That's the scandal. Ex-officials a smokescreen."

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Postscript - Comment from yesterday caught by spam filter:-

"Trying to unpick the machinations of the government private sector/corporate interface is not an easy task. I have been keeping an eye on the development of this story and other threads relating to Electronic Monitoring for a little while now.....There are some very interesting aspects regarding todays telling harm minimisation statement by Andrew Selous in relation to Just Solutions International. That we remember was the ambitious brainchild of the then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling - very much in line with his personal neoliberal ideology.

Michael Gove closed JSI down in September 2015. Whether civil service rules regarding ethics have been broken regarding inappropriate commercial activity we don’t know for sure. The Shadow Justice Secretary Lord Falconer asked Gove to launch an investigation hence the subsequent involvement of the NAO who look at financial aspects of government contracts. I suspect that someone in a position of power and influence sensing the whiff of something rotten in the MoJ probably advised that Gove be brought in as a trouble-shooter to try to undo the worst of Graylings incompetent blunderings and mistakes before things got completely out of hand and to restore some semblance of governance professional conduct that appeared to be sadly lacking. 

A lot of disgruntled people have left the MoJ in recent times and also some people who were armed with some very commercially sensitive information of great value to private sector interests. I am surprised however that Gove decided to inform MPs at the time that JSI was closed because ‘of the need to focus departmental resources on domestic priorities’. That isn't even half the story. What became of those resources who were privy to so much? However, it now looks as if it wasn't just an apparent concern with Saudi prisons but potentially a lot more besides. Gove must be a very worried man at the moment and spending a lot of time with high powered lawyers taking advice. The way the MoJ crisis will be carefully handled will no doubt become of increasing interest.

It may well be the case that the investigation of JSI will reveal a seething putrid mess in the most Grayling contaminated regions at the heart of the MoJ. The same MoJ that was involved in an unprecedented number of secret contract negotiations in relation to probation during TR some of which involved multinational corporations that are arguably now wreaking havoc in our criminal justice system. 

We remember Grayling wanted to open up probation to the market to encourage innovation. We will also remember that Graylings Permament Secretary Ursula Brennan also responded to criticisms by the Public Accounts Committee by saying the MoJ were bringing in expertise to the MoJ because of the complexities involved and the high turnover of staff being poached by private companies. Can we speculate that this might have been for their usefulness to bidders for their inside knowledge? Both Grayling and Brennan - though not lawyers - have already recieved unprecedented honours ("Gray’s Inn honoured Grayling and Brennan. Now they’ve got them for eternity") and Jeremy Wright who was a lawyer made Attorney General despite Graylings legal 'reforms' now having been abandoned as unworkable nonsense. We can only wonder what honours the private sector might eventually bestow upon them for all their work including TR.

I think that the public deserves to know what has been done in their name and there therefore needs to be an urgent independent investigation into what now appears to be an increasingly dark heart at the MoJ and a thorough examination of all contracts and activities that took place during Chris Graylings time as Justice Secretary."