Associate and Retired Members of PCS

If you are leaving the Agency and wish to remain an Associate or Retired Member of PCS please use the form at this link: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/about_pcs/associate_and_retired_members/index.cfm

Ministry of Defence spent £290m on consultants last year

MoD criticised for failing to look in-house for technical expertise while pressing ahead with 60,000 job cuts, says todays Guardian

The Ministry of Defence spent £290m on specialist consultants last year while making thousands of military and civilian personnel redundant, new figures show.

The money was drawn from the MoD's equipment budget, which is supposed to pay for the weapons, armour and vehicles the military needs in Afghanistan and for other operations.
Last November the Guardian revealed that MoD spending on outside contractors had risen fiftyfold in four years – from £6m in 2006 to a high of £297m in the financial year 2009/2010.
A confidential internal audit last year found the system for awarding contracts was being routinely abused. When the report was leaked to the Guardian, ministers promised to stamp out bad practice to bring the budget under control.

But the latest figures appear to show continued high spending during the first full year of the coalition government at a time when the military has been pressing ahead with a redundancy programme that will eventually result in 60,000 troops and civilians being forced out.

The number of firms commissioned by the MoD for technical consultancy and support work has also ballooned from a handful to 380, prompting unions to express fears the department's redundancy programme is self-defeating. They said it is cutting too far and too fast, forcing senior managers to rely on expensive consultants, some of whom will have worked for the MoD before being taken on by private companies.

"One of the effects of these cuts is that expenditure actually increases as the MoD has to pay consultants to do the work of those leaving the department," said Steve Jary, national secretary of Prospect, a union representing MoD civil servants.

Last week the parliamentary spending watchdog, the National Audit Office, warned the MoD had been in such a hurry to start cutting jobs, it was in grave danger of losing hundreds of in-house specialists it might never be able to replace.

At issue is the money spent by the MoD under a regime called Fats – Framework Agreement for Technical Support. Introduced by Labour in April 2009, this allowed senior defence officials to hire specialist, short-term help for "niche" tasks without needing authorisation from a minister. The aim was to speed-up work on the MoD's large, delay-prone procurement projects by making it easier for managers to hire "highly technical" experts in certain fields if none existed in the department.

However, last year's confidential audit showed project managers weren't bothering to look in-house before bringing outsiders on board. It highlighted numerous flaws and rule-breaking, and warned control of the MoD purse appeared to be "poorly developed or non-existent". The report said there were weaknesses in the robustness of scrutiny by those in charge of the budget, and found that in 75% of cases, contracts were awarded without any kind of competition.

Philip Hammond, the defence secretary, blamed Labour's poor governance for the spiralling costs, but the spending has continued in the last 18 months. The latest figures show the department spent £290m on Fats contracts between January and December last year.
The government insisted it could not provide a breakdown of the costs, but said the department had spent £225m between April and December last year – £5m less than the year before, a fall of 2%.

Jary said the latest figures showed the department was being forced to hire outside firms because it was losing too many of its own experts. "Prospect has been highlighting the impact of the MoD's savage cuts in its specialist staff for years. The Commons defence committee, the public accounts committee and the National Audit Office have all underlined this in recent weeks.
"Two weeks ago, we said the MoD is heading for a cliff-edge. It is now clear that the accelerator is jammed on full-speed and the driver can't see through the windscreen. Unfortunately, the brake-man has been made redundant."

The MoD insisted spending was coming down, and said it had also reduced the money spent on management consultants, which is supposed to come from a separate budget and still requires ministerial approval. Ministers say they have tightened up the rules for Fats and that these will come into effect in April.

"Fats spending has reduced in recent years and spending on management consultancy has also been reduced by from £106m under the last government to £26m over the last year," a spokesman said. "Fats is not the same as management consultancy, it is external technical services providing essential expertise such as independent airworthiness certification that our civil servants cannot provide.

"In many cases we are required to obtain independent advice on the adequacy of safety management arrangements and audit of safety related material for complex weapons. Since July 2010 governance and approval processes for Fats have been improved following an audit and from April a new framework will ensure external technical support services are used even more efficiently."

Moira Stewart can avoid top income tax rate through her own private company

The BBC newsreader Moira Stuart, has set up a private firm that allows her to avoid the 50% top rate of tax on some of her income.

The revelation came as the foreign secretary, William Hague, became the first senior cabinet minister to condemn the practice of setting up companies through which to siphon salaries.

The Guardian revealed last week that as many as 25 full-time NHS staff, most on contracts as long as five years, are paid through companies owned by their families. Many were earning well over £100,000 a year. The department of health says it is investigating the position and whether the staff will be allowed to go on the payroll, and the Treasury is undertaking a wider review across Whitehall due to be completed by the end of March.

The device allows individuals to pay as little as 21% corporation tax, rather than the higher rate of 40% or top rate of 50%. Labour has been reluctant to challenge the practice in the NHS since it knows many of the agreements were cleared under the last Labour government.

Read more here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/19/moira-stewart-tax-private-company

'Suspend millionaire back to work tsar'

MPs demand Cameron acts after police probe job placements that last just ONE DAY

David Cameron is facing demands to suspend his 'back to work' tsar Emma Harrison after police launched a fraud inquiry.

A senior MP will today table a parliamentary question asking if he will block the A4e company's contracts.

Mrs Harrison, appointed to help problem families find jobs, caused uproar this month when it was revealed she had paid herself £8.6million of mainly taxpayers' cash.

On Friday, detectives visited her company A4e's offices amid claims that it took funding for putting some clients back to work for only a day.

Whitehall sources say ministers are demanding urgent reassurance there is no 'systematic fraud' designed to rip off the taxpayer.Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103522/Suspend-work-tsar-MPs-demand-action-fraud-probe-job-placement-scheme.html#ixzz1muqDr2Zh

Meanwhile we are all in this together?

Department of Health apologises over tax deals

Andrew Lansley faces questions after leaked emails reveal at least 25 senior staff have salaries paid to companies

The Department of Health has apologised after documents sent to the Guardian showed that contrary to assurances given to parliament, more than 25 senior staff employed by the department are paid salaries direct to limited companies, with the likely effect of reducing their tax bills.

In some cases, the documents show the named individuals are being paid more than £250,000 a year, as well as additional expenses. The payments amount to almost £4.2m in one year.

The department claimed the 25 were not civil servants, or technically even staff, although a large number have been employed by the department for many years and hold very senior positions. It said the arrangements will be subject to review by the Treasury.

One Whitehall source said: "We cannot defend these arrangements, but it may be it is very common in Whitehall and this is just the tip of an iceberg."

Read more here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/feb/15/department-of-health-tax-deals-misunderstanding

COMMENT: We wonder how one can be employed by a department for many years in senior positions on 6 figure salaries, with tax avoidance as a given, and yet not be either civil servants, or technically even staff? It seems that only a very select few "are in this together"... and the rest of us are in the brown stuff!

PCS to consult on further pensions action

Senior elected representatives of the largest union in the civil service, PCS, today (9th February) unanimously agreed to consult members over continued campaigning against the government's cuts to public sector pensions.

The union's national executive council decided to hold a consultative ballot of 250,000 public sector members on the campaign, which could include further co-ordinated strikes and industrial action with other unions in education and the civil service.

The ballot - in which members will be able to vote by post, online or by phone - will be held in late February and early March, with a possible date for another co-ordinated strike on 28 March, followed by a rolling programme of industrial action, joint union protests and political campaigning.

At its previous meeting in January the union's NEC unanimously agreed to reject the government's latest offer on pensions, as it would still force public servants to work longer for a worse pension in retirement, and to pay more in contributions with the money going straight to the Treasury to pay off a budget deficit caused by the failures of bankers and successive governments.

The NEC also confirmed the union will continue to attend talks with the government, after ministers were forced to backtrack over their stated aim of excluding PCS from future discussions.

So far ministers have refused to hold genuine negotiations on the core issues of the pension age, contributions and the inflation indexation that affects the value of pensions.

The government's proposed changes to pensions are being driven by a desire to privatise more public sector jobs, the union says. This was acknowledged by Treasury minister Danny Alexander in December when he told the Commons the plans would make pensions "substantially more affordable to alternative providers".

The union will continue to campaign for fair pensions for public and private sector workers and will seek to work with private sector unions campaigning against cuts to their retirement incomes, such as those representing staff in Unilever.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "We refuse to accept that civil servants, nurses, teachers and council workers should be bullied into paying more and working longer for less, just to pay off debts racked up by greedy bankers who are still pocketing their bonuses.

"We will now consult members on a new programme of action and will be talking to other unions about the next wave of our campaign."

MoD criticised for £6bn overspend on big defence projects

Ministry's 'culture of over optimism' to blame for underestimating cost of 15 projects as well as delays, says committee of MPs (Guardian, Friday 10th February)

Britain's 15 biggest defence projects are expected to cost £6bn more than first estimated and will be delayed by a combined total of 26 years, a parliamentary watchdog reports today.

Too often the taxpayer has had to pick up the bill for the Ministry of Defence underestimating the risks involved in procuring complex weapons systems, the Commons public accounts committee (PAC) says.

The committee identifies three large projects bedevilled by long delays and huge overspend. These include the repeatedly delayed Nimrod maritime patrol aircraft, upon which £3.4bn was spent before it was scrapped, to save an estimated £1.9bn in running costs over the next 10 years.

The MoD will incur further costs from cancelling contracts and substituting alternative capabilities. The committee has asked the National Audit Office to investigate the decision to scrap Nimrod aircraft as well as all of Britain's Harrier jump-jets.

It also wants investigation of the delays surrounding the nuclear-powered Astute submarine fleet, which led to an extra £1.9bn in costs, and of the expenditure on two large aircraft carriers, the cost of which has so far risen by £2.8bn over the £3.5bn estimated when first approved in 2008. The PAC believes the carriers could end up costing as much as £12bn.

The report says that hurried attempts to save money have created problems for the future. "Decisions to save cash in the short term – deferring spending and reducing equipment numbers – have added significant long-term costs to the defence programme, and so represent poor value for money," it says.

It adds that last year's strategic defence and security review had to address the £42bn gap between the defence budget and forecast expenditure, including spending on the equipment programme. Since then there have been two more reviews, which have made further cuts in that programme in attempt to save further money.

Despite three reviews, Friday's report says, the MoD can say only that the defence budget is "broadly in balance".

The MPs comment: "It is unacceptable that the department still cannot identify the extent of the current gap between resources and expenditure."

They add that a culture of over-optimism continues at the ministry when it comes to costing projects. They point out that the financial burden incurred by underestimating project costs has fallen mainly on taxpayers, who have had to underwrite them.

The forecast for completion of the 15 largest defence projects increased by £466m last year alone.

Since the projects were first approved their estimated costs have risen by £6.1bn, bringing the combined total to about £60bn. Together, the projects are expected to be completed 322 months later than planned.

The PAC says the MoD's performance has improved, and that recent projects have had lower cost increases and fewer technical problems than earlier ones.

Today's report also points out that cutting equipment numbers after contracts have been signed usually represents poor value for money, as it invariably increases unit costs.

The MoD has recently decided to reduce the number of Puma and Chinook helicopters by four and 10 respectively, and it is buying three fewer European A400M transport aircraft. This reportedly has contributed to a 46% increase in the cost of each A400M plane.

Margaret Hodge MP, the Labour chair of the PAC, said: "Decisions to delay or cut programmes to save money in the short term continue to lead to increased costs in the longer term and do not represent good value for money."

She added: "We welcome the fact that there are signs of improvement. Projects approved since 2002 have shown significantly lower cost increases."

However, she said, the committee was concerned that the MoD was still unable to set out openly the extent of the gap between its income and expenditure, and how and by when it would balance this year's budget. "The department must publish that information urgently."

The MPs say that in light of current economic conditions it would be unrealistic for the MoD to plan spending on the assumption it will get a 1% increase in its equipment budget after 2015‚ a factor defence chiefs had been demanding.

David Cameron's apponted 'families champion' pockets £8.6 million

Of (mostly) public money for operating schemes that promised to get long-term unemployed back to work and that have had an abysmal track record of failure.

Emma Harrison (left) is 'Call me Dave's' 'families champion' . She has this year paid herself an £8.6 million dividend out her company A4E that is almost entirely dependent upon government contracts, and on all of which she has failed to meet targets.

Not surprosingly she lives in a 20 room mansion with her husband, their four children and a number of 'other' friends in what they describe as a 'posh commune', whatever that means? We cannot see her as being one of the 99%!

Evidently this a part of 'Call Me Dave's' BIG SOCIETY. It consists of taking money from DWP and then to giving it to the already rich and evidently useless. There may be a good reason for doing this, it's just that Dave cannot find it!

Read more here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099062/Fury-families-tsar-gets-8-6m-ONE-YEAR-bulk-comes-taxpayer.html

Argentina names top football league Belgrano

Argentina was accused last night of whipping up more tension over the Falkland Islands by naming its forthcoming football season after the General Belgrano.

The country’s domestic league, which kicks off on Friday, will be known as the Crucero General Belgrano First Division.

In a further twist, the league’s winners will receive a trophy named in honour of an Argentine who murdered five Falklanders.

It will be called the Gaucho Rivero – after Antonio ‘El Gaucho’ Rivero, a Falklands resident who killed a group of British settlers in 1833.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097991/Belgrano-soccer-league-Argentina-names-division-doomed-ship.html#ixzz1lmvKzRPl

Right-wingers are less intelligent than left wingers, says study

Children with low intelligence grow up to be prejudiced

Right-wing views make the less intelligent feel 'safe'

Analysis of more than 15,000 people

Right-wingers tend to be less intelligent than left-wingers, and people with low childhood intelligence tend to grow up to have racist and anti-gay views, says a controversial new study.

Conservative politics work almost as a 'gateway' into prejudice against others, say the Canadian academics.
The paper analysed large UK studies which compared childhood intelligence with political views in adulthood across more than 15,000 people.

The authors claim that people with low intelligence gravitate towards right-wing views because they make them feel safe.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2095549/Right-wingers-intelligent-left-wingers-says-controversial-study--conservative-politics-lead-people-racist.html#ixzz1lJ8Hka4z

The Wanted

The government’s move to strip former Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred Goodwin of his knighthood has led to calls for ministers to consider inflicting similar punishment on other banking grandees who were implicated in the near collapse of the British financial system.

John Mann, a Labour MP who sits on the Treasury select committee, said: ‘The precedent has been set. It wasn’t Fred Goodwin on his own who caused the problems – he was part of a team of people.’

He added: ‘You can’t get a gong for services to the banking industry and then bring it to its knees and expect to keep the honour. I’m surprised it has taken so long.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2094783/In-spotlight-The-banking-knights-implicated-British-financial-meltdown.html#ixzz1l8y0EuQD