Jim Graham Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Whitehall department savings scheme overspent by £500m, says report In 2004, Tony Blair's Labour government promised to set up cost-saving centres to save £159m by sharing "back-office" functions such as information technology, personnel and procurement between departments. The NAO (National Audit Office) said the initial start-up costs had been put at £900m but, by 2011, had increased to £1.4bn. Labour MP Margaret Hodge, who chairs the Commons Public Accounts Committee, said the overall figures provided "a shockingly familiar story of spiralling costs and poor value for money". You couldn't make it up could you? Over the last few days there has been much debate on SF about private v public. Then this little gem falls right into our laps. Just in case there is anyone left out there who thinks the public sector does a good job and provides value for money here is exactly why front line services are short of money and not fit for purpose. These wretched, self serving, incompetent fools across lots of departments were given a job to save our money. Instead they spent more on themselves than they saved the tax payer. I think that says it all really. It's the perfect model for what goes on day in and day out across all public organisations. Why is there no zero tolerance of the army of bungling bureauprats who infect our schools, hospitals, town halls and every other government function? Sheffield Council is full of such incompetence. Anybody got any ideas how we get rid of them or are you going to defend them like you defend all public services whether they are any use or not? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
taxman Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Anybody got any ideas how we get rid of them or are you going to defend them like you defend all public services whether they are any use or not? There is a huge difference between defending public services and defending the idiots at the top who blunder about wasting money on grandiose schemes or failed IT systems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I1L2T3 Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 There is a huge difference between defending public services and defending the idiots at the top who blunder about wasting money on grandiose schemes or failed IT systems. Absolutely. There are stories that make your toes curl. Same is true of the abject failure of many part-privatised services. Same is true of quangos. We do need to find a happy medium. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smithy266 Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 <<<We do need to find a happy medium.>>> Oh, no, not another thread about tarot card readers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LeMaquis Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 You couldn't make it up could you? Over the last few days there has been much debate on SF about private v public. I always distrust people who use cliches like "you couldn't make it up". Jim, you live in a simple black and white world where public sector is bad and private sector is good. I don't know what you think about Allen Stanford, News International and all the other private sector scandals of recent years. I get the feeling if a teabag is wasted in a town hall somewhere that's a bigger story than Lehman Brothers crashing. I think you're making your sense of outrage up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemibr Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Absolutely. We do need to find a happy medium. Doris Stokes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fruitisbad Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 is it not also the greed of the suppliers who overcharge the nhs? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alchresearch Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Why is there no zero tolerance of the army of bungling bureauprats who infect our schools, hospitals, town halls and every other government function? Sheffield Council is full of such incompetence. To be fair, many schools now have business managers (replacing the old bursar's role) who are quite clued up to efficient spending and making sure the school pays it's way. One school in Warrington is school by day and public library and leisure centre the rest of the time, bringing in a tidy profit for when the facilities are not used after 3pm. Sadly, primaries are too small to employ savvy people and they still get ripped off. But higher up the chain the BSF farce was out of many school's hands. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hemibr Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 They cannot be gotten rid of once the project has started....... Its the capitalist way and has been at least as far back as the Humber Bridge project where they took the quote of Murphy builders who tendered a tenner for the complete project then sent in a bill for 5000 million having got the contract and build underway. The only attempted bail out form excessive expense incursion i am aware of was with the Channel tunnel where the funding was curtailed - the project stopped and the banks left as proud owners of 2 unconnected holes. I have to say if i was given a squillion quid budget i would divide that up into my pot and the remaining marillion quid divided up to create under managers - sub under managers, regional teritorial managers - reguiional territorial assistant managers - assistant assistant managers to make myself fireproof from any liability for anything whatsoever and then mabe - just maybe find a few quid for a workforce to start on what the budget was meant to be for................. and there in a nutshell lies your NHS Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
max Posted March 7, 2012 Share Posted March 7, 2012 Private sector good: £850bn: official cost of the bank bailout You're having a laugh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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