tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post1385612350713218289..comments2024-03-28T07:32:23.397+00:00Comments on On Probation Blog: More Prison TroubleJim Brownhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00258147767051200157noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-5554437178489731222017-07-15T11:33:39.567+01:002017-07-15T11:33:39.567+01:00http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39113391
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-39113391<br /><br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-53571535081184591522017-07-14T23:19:49.814+01:002017-07-14T23:19:49.814+01:00Yes Yes Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-25583437750194696932017-07-14T23:01:41.229+01:002017-07-14T23:01:41.229+01:00Great blog, thanks. There is so much going on in ...Great blog, thanks. There is so much going on in the government where I just think "When is this just going to fall over completely?". Was a time when if you asked a business or institution what it did, the answer would be a statement of a service or product. Now the answer in so many cases is "Doesn't matter what we do, but we do it cheaper" Achieved by producing shit services and products, and treating employees appallingly. Not sustainable, not defensible.<br />anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15359540301847252660noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-55719230427718562182017-07-14T17:55:26.853+01:002017-07-14T17:55:26.853+01:00Sorry to digress here but just opened my pay slip ...Sorry to digress here but just opened my pay slip from Interswerve CGM only to find it printed onto a very thin piece of A4 and folded into the envelope !!!!! and yes I think a General strike should most definitely be on the cards Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-51321904224805117782017-07-14T10:37:14.477+01:002017-07-14T10:37:14.477+01:00General strike anyone?General strike anyone?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-12047275153359080152017-07-14T09:50:18.652+01:002017-07-14T09:50:18.652+01:00Really good article here Jim thank you. According ...Really good article here Jim thank you. According to NAO in their September 2014 report on transforming governments contract management the government had started a large change programme to improve how it manages its contracts following the over billing scandal involving G4s and Serco. This was just at the point of the TR split. This report found 343 out of 584 areas of contract management were assessed as weak, 73 of these were considered to create a material risk of over billing. I recollect the Cabinet Office, HM Treasury, and the Ministry of Justice were initially allowing these companies to bid for Probation. NAO reports they were not going to impose an official ban on letting new contracts to these companies only revise the contracts.<br />Out of 60 contracts NAO tested at that time for over billing 47 issues on risk were identified and Government was found to not have sufficient understanding of the level of risk retaining on contracted-out services. (Sounds familiar). None of those in the cross-government review shared risk registers with the contractors to ensure all understood who was managing what. I recollect the TU’s never got to see risk assessments on TR, they were given the run around and told they were commercially sensitive but they had there suspicions they didn’t even exist. 50 issues on contract development with departments paying insufficient attention to the impact of contract change. 31 managing relationship issues. Not all departments have had a strategic approach to managing supplier relationships with a lack of meaningful incentives for innovation that can inhibit shared approaches to problem solving and service improvement. Try and find an MOJ contract manager when you go into dispute with CRC owners, I hear they go underground. <br />This report gets better or worse depending how you want to view it. “Poor contract management is a long-standing issue” . Don’t we in Probation know it !!!! NAO states by the middle of the last decade there was a large number of mature contracted-out services across government and work started to highlight widespread problems with contract management. In 2008 they said that no commercial director or head of procurement rated the resources allocated to managing major contracts as ‘good’. They highlighted poor risk management, inadequate performance measurement and limited use of performance incentives. Since then they still report on many contracts with weak contract management with far-reaching consequences, including the need for better scrutiny of payments and understanding of the contract which could have prevented the over billing found in the Ministry of Justice’s contracts. <br />The Ministry of Defence’s failure to provide ICT infrastructure critical to the success of the Army’s recruitment contract with Capita impacted on recruitment activities and increased costs. The underlying causes of problems in contract management go beyond poor administration and lapsed awareness says NAO. “The problems are rooted in a civil service culture that does not understand the value of contract management, and which has hindered previous attempts to disseminate and implement best practice. Reform of contract management will therefore need to go beyond a tightening of controls. It is difficult to generalise across 17 government departments, but from our collective experience of auditing government contracting we have identified 4 key causes of poor contract management that need to be addressed although the reality is that government is unlikely to ever have the commercial capability of its contractors”. The 4 key areas are; Government fails to recognise the value of contract management / Senior managers in central government departments have not taken taken contract management seriously / Senior managers have not demanded visibility over their contracts / Government is at a permanent disadvantage on commercial capability.<br />Is it any surprise we are in a mess and at how much cost. This government has to be taken to task over these contracts collectively by all the unions. <br /> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-54172593697282210622017-07-14T08:28:59.296+01:002017-07-14T08:28:59.296+01:00I'm sure Interswerve will be rubbing their gru...I'm sure Interswerve will be rubbing their grubby little hands together to see what they can make from this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8578343158425987632.post-69203450142327533862017-07-14T07:59:06.295+01:002017-07-14T07:59:06.295+01:00"How long can it be before a crisis at a Gove..."How long can it be before a crisis at a Government contractor turns really nasty, and the National Audit Office’s warning that the big guns have become too big to fail proves prophetic?"<br /><br />The dreadful crisis has already happened. We're already there. Have been for some years now. A bit like the scandal of unsafe buildings, i.e. the highly unsuitable materials are already fixed in situ, we're just waiting for the spark that sets it all off.<br /><br />Just look at the consultancy fees, accountancy fees, audit fees, special this-and-that fees regularly handed out to the big accountants and law firms. Just look at the revolving door from MP and Senior Simple Serpent to super-rich part-time directorship. Just look at the privatised prisons & probation debacles. Just look at any list of Govt contractors:<br /><br />G4S; Capita; Deloittes: PwC: Serco... <br /><br />Control of the UK was handed on a plate to multinationals many years ago, they've just been ticking over submitting invoices eversince, biding their time waiting for the right Administration which will allow them to achieve maximum profits by capitalising on their UK assets.<br /><br />And Brexit is the perfect smokescreen.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com