Plundering the Public Sector

David Craig with Richard Brooks, Constable, 2006, 264 pages, £9.99.

This diatribe is sub-titled ‘How New Labour are letting consultants run off with £70 billion of our money’ and is described as by the "author of the controversial, best-selling Rip-Off! The Scandalous Inside Story of the Management Consulting Money Machine", published in 2005, to which this appears to be a sequel. The list of reference sources date from 2000 to early 2006 and it is worrying that the charges levelled at the three groups of participants attacked in this catalogue of disasters, mostly in IT projects undertaken for public-sector organisations – politicians, civil servants and large consultancies – appear to show that little notice has been taken of lessons to be gleaned from earlier projects or of the author’s earlier warnings. It would seem that politicians (New Labour) initiate ambitious schemes, that civil servants appear to be ill-equipped to design realistic specifications, manage and monitor the resulting projects or to be able to resist pressure from consultants who wish to profit from treating each project from scratch as if earlier work cannot be used as a foundation. Many projects are grandiose, experience changes of specification, run late and soak up huge increases in cost compared with original budgets estimates.

Projects cited include those commissioned by MoD, CSA, DWP, Criminal Records Bureau, NATS, Inland Revenue, NHS and involve PFI. Allegedly the bulk of IT-related invitations to tender and hence awarded contracts are restricted to a small number of large consultancies. Once started, it appears to be not worth anyone’s reputation to confess to mistakes or to retrench or account for wasted expenditure.

If such unfortunate circumstances seem to be endlessly repeated – for example, the authors include a plea to use smaller consultancies as a better option – one wonders whether such comprehensively critical books as this have much impact on their intended target audience. A recent article in the Financial Times entitled ‘Is there any value in using strategic IT consultants?’ may provide a helpful pointer and cites the author’s website, www.auridian.com. And, though not specifically mentioned, are economic consultancies also in the frame?