Summer reading for One Barnet councillors

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Dear Councillors

I understand that August is the time for you all to take a break.

I am enclosing some potential summer holiday reading material.

It is a report published by the Public Administration Select Committee (PASC) entitled ‘Public Administration Committee – Twelfth Report  Government and IT- “A Recipe For Rip-Offs”:

The report was discussed on the BBC Today programme yesterday I was struck by the comment made by Conservative chair of the committee Bernard Jenkin MP speaking on the Today Programme

 

“The Government has said that it is overly reliant on an “oligopoly” of suppliers; some witnesses went further and described the situation as a ‘cartel.’ Whatever we call the situation it has led to an inexcusable situation that sees governments waste an obscene amount of public money.”

 

“Committee chairman, Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin, said that according to some sources, the government had paid contractors between seven and 10 times more than the standard rate.”

 

“The last Labour government spent £16bn in IT projects in 2009.”

 

“It warned: “The lack of IT skills in government and over-reliance on contracting out is a fundamental problem which has been described as a ‘recipe for rip-offs’.”

 

“IT procurement has too often resulted in late, over-budget IT systems that are not fit for purpose.”

 UNISON is not alone in making the parallels with the One Barnet programme where Council services are being bundled together in order they are delivered by a big multinational organisations some of whom are likely to be providing services to government. I am sure expensive consultants were brought into advise politicians that contracts with the ‘big boys’ would deliver innovation, efficiency and improves services.; this independent report clearly proves otherwise. Paying ten times the going rate is inexcusable, but you have to ask yourself how did this happen and why was it not picked up? These companies knew what going on but appear to have no scruples about taking extortionate amounts of public money at a time when the public services are having to make massive cuts.

Enjoy the break 

Best wishes

John Burgess

Branch Secretary.

Barnet UNISON

Standing up for staff and public services

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