Passing Thoughts

Procurement

I was listening to the radio last night and they where talking about the new NHS computer system. Having been exposed to the way government IT projects are procured I would have no confidence that any Government IT could be achieved with any degree of success. Let alone such a large project as this. The problem lies in the mind set of the procurement process. The basic premise is to make sure that there is a clear trail of liability when something goes wrong. When something goes wrong. And therein lies the problem. Accountability is all well and good but it misses out something very important. When the basic stance is blame no one is prepared to stand up and take responsibility. And without personal responsibility failure is inevitable.

Actually the upcoming strike seems a lot like this to me. The civil service is inefficient and it does cost a lot. The cost of employing someone in the civil service is much greater than employing someone on the private sector as far as I can tell. However the civil service is not, in my experience, overstaffed. Cutting people is the easy answer because it will lower costs but to my mind this is just privatization all over again. Quick and dirty cost saving in order for short term gain. Which will have terrible long term consequences. To properly fix the problem would be a monumental task.

This government is full of good intentions. It is not particularly good at thinking about the long (or even medium) term consequences of its actions.

I find myself drawn back to the new Nick Cave album time and time again. There are odd elements about it. The lyrics at times seem perversely cheesy or worse Nick Cave by numbers. There are guitar riffs that could be straight from a seventies metal album but the mix of blues and gospels, the energy and the confident delivery of the band make this an excellent record.