MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Probably one of the biggest growth companies in 2020 for all the wrong moral reasons. Reported this morning to have made so much money, they are giving back their Furlough money, and making total bonuses of £8m to thier employees.
There’s part of me that thinks this is just a smokescreen from the real issues of alledged inappropriate contracts and associated poor performance, yet a tiny part that thinks there’s a few members of the public who’ll feel a little bit better off this morning, which is surely a good thing?
Now the latter depends on how these bonuses are distributed, likely heavily weighted at C level.
Thoughts on this? Are we happy for the little man getting a Christmas bonus or cringing at the alleged morally inappropriate use of public funds?
Always a worry when public sector spending results in private sector bonuses while public sector staff face a pay freeze. Well, a worry to people in households with a public sector employee in it like ours anyway.
Thoughts on this? Are we happy for the little man getting a Christmas bonus or cringing at the alleged morally inappropriate use of public funds?
Both.
Serco is a disgrace. Sniping around the edges of public services, over tendering, under delivering, hiving off stacks of cash and ultimately ending up giving the mess back to the public purse.
They are a byword for overpriced shonkiness in the NHS.
And who's really to blame? Serco or the people awarding and managing the contracts. Not defending Serco but it's the public sector ultimately failing to manage our money carefully, there should be service levels and clawbacks in the contracts that should be rigorously invoked, see how much money Serco makes if they are held accountable by the people paid to do it.
And who’s really to blame? Serco or the people awarding and managing the contracts.
The problem is they may not actually be the same people, but they are frequently colleagues; the movement of staff from public to private sector is a well known way to get that late career pension boost.
This was my favourite:
A private sector consortium is inserted between two public sector bodies (AWE and MoD), and pays a big dividend out to its members - one of which is Serco.
I hate myself for this; but it was Dominic Cummings who put a stop to this, MoD issued the notice to terminate this arrangement a couple of months ago.
Serco or the people awarding and managing the contracts
Well there is a lot of overlap between members/former members of government and companies like Serco so its not an either/or situation.
Plus writing/managing contracts to cover all eventualities is pretty hard and going to be impossible when the companies on the receiving end knows there isnt much choice and what other choice there is is equally shit companies and that ideology demands it must be outsourced.
If you come up with service level agreements chances are they will be gamed almost instantly. Remember one temp job at uni which was answering the phone at an insurance company and then sticking the person on hold. Reason being was the company had outsourced the call centre and the KPI was simply how quick the phone was answered. So at times of flooding/high wind/whatever they simply brought in a bunch of extra people to answer the phones and then put them on hold until one of the trained people was available.
I hate myself for this; but it was Dominic Cummings who put a stop to this
Did he?
No he didn’t.
Serco now run by Rupert Soames no less. Arch capitalist and grandson of Churchill...
I’d rather the bonuses weren’t being paid and the money was given back.
I remember when Serco took over running a lot of MOD supply services at Faslane back in the mid 90's. Not so much a shambles, but costs when straight up and up and up.
They were shit in the prison service to.
I had the misfortune to briefly work for Serco on the railways, absolute shower.
I’ve done some work with Serco - they have some ‘clever’ people at the top looking after the front end / tender at the lowest price to win the contract on lowest price at the bare minimum service level. Anything over that is charged at a premium. There would be no room for these companies if the government/ civil service were vaguely competent at tendering, managing contracts and understanding the value drivers of delivering a service business. The likes of Serco tend to come unstuck when it gets complex or they encounter unforeseen issues.
There would be no room for these companies if the government/ civil service were vaguely competent at tendering
You misunderstand the real reasons these companies exist.
1. To funnel tax payers money to the 1%ers
2. To create political space between government policy and the damage the execution policy creates.
99% of government outsourcing has absolutely nothing to do with efficiency and service delivery or any of the bullshit stated reasons they always come out with.
Serco is a disgrace. Sniping around the edges of public services, over tendering, under delivering, hiving off stacks of cash and ultimately ending up giving the mess back to the public purse.
They are a byword for overpriced shonkiness in the NHS.
And in the Defence world.. total incompetence.
As for the bonuses - they are a commercial outfit their employees will probably be incentivised to deliver a certain profit/margin/etc - if they achieve it they get a bonus.
Same with who I work for (part of the business i work for is effectively a Defence contractor in the UK - as Naval projects have paid my wages for the last 14 years) - Bonus payment can be up to 10% of our annual salary - if we hit the right metrics.
My wife is a teacher - she's never worked so hard, and has been in work pretty much constantly all through this. Her Christmas bonus consisted of a mini bottle of fizz from her boss.
I'm a PM for the above mentioned Defence Contractor - i've worked my arse off this year, but mostly from home in shorts and a T-shirt.
I've been sent a Christmas hamper in lieu of a Christmas do, and the above mentioned bonus was four figures.