Top personnel general joined Capita months after firm won its Army recruiting IT contract The general overseeing British Army recruitment joined Capita shortly after the company won its "disastrous" Recruiting Partnership Programme (RPP) with the Ministry of Defence. The Times has reported that Lieutenant General Sir Mark Mans applied to join the notorious outsourcing firm just two months after retiring in December …
"Oh yes, everyone except those with their trotters in the troughs."
With your head down in the pig bin
Saying 'Keep on digging'
Pig stain on your fat chin
What do you hope to find
Down in the pig mine?
You're nearly a laugh
You're nearly a laugh
But you're really a cry
Please don't insult pigs. They are obviously a lot less greedy than many generals, can probably use a map and GPS far better than your average subaltern and they would never put all trotters in the trough, unlike our erstwhile politicians.
Pigs are useful animals. High ranking officers, Capita staff and corrupt politicians less so.
The ‘revolving door’ is one reason why public trust in Government and Public Sector institutions has fallen to a new low. This is because the twin evils of lobbying and corruption rear their ugly heads every time taxpayers’ money crosses the boundary between the Public Sector and the Private Sector.
Whereas media focus is more often on the small number of high-profile political elite who shamelessly exploit their previous contacts and know-how they have accumulated whilst in the pay of the State to line their own pockets and unwittingly skew the market in favour of their new paymasters in the Private Sector, the journey made by thousands of ordinary public servants underneath them, who are also looking to follow the example set by their political masters and cash-in on this bonanza, has escaped scrutiny.
Of course, everyone has a right to sell their labour in the free market to whomsoever they wish, for whatever price they can command. However, the brazen way the newly-retired political elite have gone about exercising this freedom without any checks and controls on the way they go about disseminating privileged information about inner workings of Government is scandalous, and always to the detriment of taxpayers – which is what they promised they would protect whilst in the pay of the State!
The military-political-industrial complex has been the original model for lobbying and corruption from the earliest of times – indeed, the career prospects of people in the pay of the State are inextricably linked to those with the means to produce weapons systems, facilitated by the ‘revolving door’ and intense lobbying behind the scenes where it matters most, in the corridors of power inhabited by the same, self-serving political elite.
At a time when the headcount at UK MoD’s defence equipment acquisition organisation at Abbey Wood, Bristol is being forcibly slashed as part of the 2015 Spending Review settlement with the Treasury, there exists an extremely high risk that departing procurement officials, including those who have not previously taken part in the assessment of invitation to tender responses, will be persuaded to pocket corresponding memory sticks (or CDs) and offer them in return for employment, to competitors of owners of these same CDs – thereby transferring innovative design solutions and Intellectual Property Rights which can then be used by unscrupulous recipients, to grab a larger share of the defence market.
Such behaviour only reinforces the view that lower-level defence procurement officials have nothing to offer potential employers in the Private Sector (unlike the political elite), except someone else’s (stolen) property! And when these people arrive on Contractors’ premises, they promptly become a burden on fellow co-workers and the payroll because they do not have the necessary skills (due to being selected for reasons other than merit) as task performers to add value to the business, only costs.
What’s more, because many Defence Contractors do not have a ‘Code on Ethical Behaviour in Business’ in place, they will not only happily accept such proprietary information without any qualms, but also encourage its unauthorised removal from MoD Abbey Wood – yet they would not want their own CDs to fall into the hands of their Competitors.
Such is their twisted sense of morality!
There is something very disturbing about people who have previously, as public servants sworn undying allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, only to then engage in defrauding Her Majesty’s Government of taxpayers’ money on behalf of vested interests, whilst pursuing a second career in the Private Sector.
@JagPatel3
@JagPatel3: Very well said...
We (the electorate) are being played for fools because there is virtually nothing that we can do about it, and "they" know it.
My only quibble might be the inclusion of the word "defence" in your Title; it's far more widespread than that. Far, far more...
It's not just defence. If you are terribly bored, you might want to check the timeline of the former place of work of people put in charge of the National Audit Office and the projects they audited. You may find an interesting intersect in a project that caused quite a lot of controversy, yet that specific little detail was missed by all.
Needless to say, millions were wasted, huge profits were enjoyed by participants and, not entirely unsurprising, the NAO audit carefully avoided what it should have been looking for.
On Planet Trump in the USA this kind of crap happens all the time
Don't blame Don.
Look for Kellog, Brown & Root (KBR). They made a ton (US$ billion) in military contract during the war in Iraq. Pay close attention to the members of the board. I believe there was a recently deceased US president in that list.
I'd just offer the observation that ACOBA is taking a much too narrow view of what should disqualify a retired general from taking up such a post. Even if he hadn't had a hand in the recruitment contract negotiation, there he is now, as a Capita employee, and still receiving the deference which is bound to be given (and expected) from colleagues remaining in the Army command structure. A retiring general or admiral or air vice-marshal doesn't suddenly become an average middle-aged executive because he (or she!) is suddenly out of uniform. I suspect that it is this "clout" and knowledge that makes the retiree attractive.
I am well aware of ex colleagues who left the MoD at mid-high rank, and who smoothly moved in to occupations where imho there are major challenges to keeping poachers apart from game keepers. It would surprise few to know that end of career postings to Abbeywood (procurement) were very popular
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