UNISON is calling for an immediate halt to any new privatisation and outsourcing after a study revealed serious flaws in the way public sector contracts are sold off and run.
According to the Institute for Government, private companies are frequently putting their shareholders first and cutting corners at the taxpayer’s expense.
The IfG estimates public service markets are now worth nearly
£100bn, and growing.
The authors say the pace of the current shift towards using markets to
deliver key services outstrips the ability of Whitehall officials charged with
designing and implementing them.
This time last year, Britain risked international embarrassment when the security firm G4S failed to recruit or train sufficient personnel to keep the Olympics safe. Despite these serious failings, the company initially still expected to get paid in full for their unfulfilled contract.
The same company is now under investigation for potentially charging the government for tagged criminals who were dead.
Earlier this month an inquest jury found the Angolan asylum seeker Jimmy Mubenga had been unlawfully killed when he was restrained on a deportation flight by G4S guards.
The recent growth in private company involvement in healthcare has already lead to serious failings.
Private out of hours provider Harmoni was found last year to have just one advanced nurse practitioner providing out of hours GP cover to up to 250,000 patients. In London earlier this year a baby died after receiving inadequate treatment at an out of hours GP centre run by the same company.
In 2011, the health of thousands of elderly people was put at risk as care home company Southern Cross collapsed, after undergoing a sale and leaseback process to release huge sums to its parent private equity firm.
According to a recent UNISON report into the water industry since privatisation, bills have risen more than three times the rate of inflation, customer satisfaction have fallen while profits and dividends paid to shareholders have skyrocketed.
Dave Prentis, UNISON general secretary, said: “Outsourcing and privatisation is failing taxpayers and those forced to rely on privately-provided public services. At best the process is a waste of taxpayer’s precious funds, and at worst it poses a threat to people’s health.
“Meanwhile it is boom time for private companies.
“Public sector contracts are a lucrative option, and beholden to shareholders as they are, profits always come first, even if corners have to be cut.
“We have real fears that the public sector does not have the necessary skills to be a rigorous contractor. Small, underfunded teams can be easily hoodwinked by private companies and the huge sums they spend setting up teams to bid for and to win contracts.
“Recent scandals of privatisation have exposed serious, potentially fraudulent and often dangerous failings.
“How much more has to go wrong before the government takes action?”
Union News
