Do you want to discuss boring politics? (11 Viewers)

[CCFCSteve]

Unwelcome, if not unexpected news

Covid scheme fraud hit almost £11bn but much 'beyond recovery', report says

The response to the pandemic led to "enormous outlays of public money which exposed it to the risk of fraud and error", a report says.

www.bbc.co.uk

‘It found £13.6bn was spent on PPE procurement, with 38 billion items purchased - although 11 billion were unused by 2024. Losses were estimated at £10bn from over-ordering and £324m of fraud.’

Not like public sector procurement to waste money

 

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[fernandopartridge]

‘It found £13.6bn was spent on PPE procurement, with 38 billion items purchased - although 11 billion were unused by 2024. Losses were estimated at £10bn from over-ordering and £324m of fraud.’

Not like public sector procurement to waste money

Public sector procurement was barely involved, the whole PPE buying process was undertaken by the DHSC under very close instruction of Matt Hancock and all the other robbing bastards in the Tory party at that time.

 

[CCFCSteve]

Public sector procurement was barely involved, the whole PPE buying process was undertaken by the DHSC under very close instruction of Matt Hancock and all the other robbing bastards in the Tory party at that time.

I don’t doubt some of the shitshow was caused by Hancock but ultimately it was still public sector procurement, whether that’s DHSC, NHS etc

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

‘It found £13.6bn was spent on PPE procurement, with 38 billion items purchased - although 11 billion were unused by 2024. Losses were estimated at £10bn from over-ordering and £324m of fraud.’

Not like public sector procurement to waste money

Not like certain posters to needlessly smear whole chunks of the workforce

 

[PVA]

Hancock should be in prison for that fiasco but instead he gets a gig on I'm a celeb.

What a country.

 

[CCFCSteve]

Not like certain posters to needlessly smear whole chunks of the workforce

Hardly ‘smearing’ whole sections of the workforce. It was a flippant comment based on a quote from an article posted and it’s hardly a secret how much money we waste (labour even did a report on MoD procurement wastage before the election)

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

Hardly ‘smearing’ whole sections of the workforce. It was a flippant comment based on a quote from an article posted and it’s hardly a secret how much money we waste (labour even did a report on MoD procurement wastage before the election)

Sure, just write ‘typical public sector’ at the end of the post for a laugh I guess.

You will find wasteful spending in all big organisations, public or private.

 

[fernandopartridge]

I don’t doubt some of the shitshow was caused by Hancock but ultimately it was still public sector procurement, whether that’s DHSC, NHS etc

I'm telling you that not one person from an NHS trust that might regularly buy PPE was actually involved in this yet you're choosing to stick to your usual Tory stereotyping

 

[CCFCSteve]

Sure, just write ‘typical public sector’ at the end of the post for a laugh I guess.

You will find wasteful spending in all big organisations, public or private.

It’s a valid point though isn’t it ? Of course large organisations waste money as well, but public sector spending directly impacts me and the rest of the country, so I care a bit more about it. So whether millions/billions has been wasted on poor procurement or the disgusting Moan type ‘fraud’ Im more likely to pay attention and comment.

I’ve said numerous times recently that we need to be more careful with how we choose to spend public money because as tax payers and businesses get squeezed more, their patience going to be wearing very thin. There’s some that think there’s just an endless supply of cash so this doesn’t really matter. I disagree and unless we see an improvement in public services, growth etc then we’re likely to get a populist party like Reform in and I personally think they’ll likely make an even bigger mess of things.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

It’s a valid point though isn’t it ? Of course large organisations waste money as well, but public sector spending directly impacts me and the rest of the country, so I care a bit more about it. So whether millions/billions has been wasted on poor procurement or the disgusting Moan type ‘fraud’ Im more likely to pay attention and comment.

I’ve said numerous times recently that we need to be more careful with how we choose to spend public money because as tax payers and businesses get squeezed more, their patience going to be wearing very thin. There’s some that think there’s just an endless supply of cash so this doesn’t really matter. I disagree and unless we see an improvement in public services, growth etc then we’re likely to get a populist party like Reform in and I personally think they’ll likely make an even bigger mess of things.

Private sector waste impacts people who use their services, some of which there is an effective monopoly on. When I worked in big pharma, we had meetings about how to make meetings more productive. Projects went over time and way over budget, huge amounts of money would get lost over quality control issues, and so on and so on. We supplied the NHS with what we were producing so these problems then ultimately impacted ordinary people as orders were late being delivered.

It’s all related and this habit of pretending that teachers and nurses are sat there pissing resources away, when the front line are trying to deliver more with less resource, is lazy smearing.

 

[CCFCSteve]

I'm telling you that not one person from an NHS trust that might regularly buy PPE was actually involved in this yet you're choosing to stick to your usual Tory stereotyping

The money was still spent by the state and I never mentioned NHS trusts involvement. Wanting to see public money spent well shouldn’t be a left or right issue.

MoD wasting billions with ‘broken’ procurement system, MPs warn

Commons spending watchdog says out of 20 projects, 13 were running late by a cumulative total of 21 years

www.theguardian.com

https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Dossier-of-Waste-in-the-Ministry-of-Defence-2010-2021.pdf

There’s even been the procurement act brought in recently which again highlights theres been issues so not sure why the uproar

 

[CCFCSteve]

.

It’s all related and this habit of pretending that teachers and nurses are sat there pissing resources away, when the front line are trying to deliver more with less resource, is lazy smearing.

What a load of bollocks. I’ve said numerous times that wastage and poor processes are doing a disservice to the hard working front line workers.

 

[Brighton Sky Blue]

What a load of bollocks. I’ve said numerous times that wastage and poor processes are doing a disservice to the hard working front line workers.

To answer your question above, if you’d left the dig at the public sector off at the end there’d be no pushback. It just reads again as an MMB-esque smear of the workforce.

 

[CCFCSteve]

To answer your question above, if you’d left the dig at the public sector off at the end there’d be no pushback. It just reads again as an MMB-esque smear of the workforce.

I’ve said Im happy to pay a bit more tax if it helps improve public services, the country etc. All I want is the cash to be spent wisely. There’s been a fair few examples in recent years of millions/billions being wasted (MoD, PPE, and I’ve also given examples of BCC at local level etc etc*) so I don’t think the original comment was unreasonable. There’ll obviously be some really good people working in public sector procurement, unfortunately theres still been ridiculous amounts wasted.

*Labour not only did the MoD procurement waste document they did one with 100 examples of wasted money on sunaks watch. As I say if we want to see the country improve this shouldn’t be a left/right issue