Sir Philip Green's Report

[@contradevian]

As per Sunday Times:

£20bn a year renting property, £10M of it empty.

Low grade civil servants given "blackberrys" millions gone in private phone calls.

"anomolies" is different amounts paid by departments for office furniture etcc

advertising, consulting and PR agency spending criticised

police uniforms bought all over the place by different authorities and not in bulk

IT projects more than "£1M" now need to be signed off by a Minister

£5000 for photo of a puddle

£390,000 spent on art for government offices

£57,000 for an "installation" at Paris ambassaders office

Still I'm sure civil servants are worth it, and it helped boost the economy.

Edited October 10, 2010 by Sir John Steed

[MRMX9]

As per Sunday Times:

police uniforms bought all over the place by different authorities and not in bulk

Still I'm sure civil servants are worth it, and it helped boost the economy.

What's Green's recommendation - the police should buy their uniforms from BHS?

[Bloo Loo]

What's Green's recommendation - the police should buy their uniforms from BHS?

why not?

they are shirts, pants, belts, jackets..just the special buttons and insignia...no reason BHS shouldnt offer a quote.

then again, most forces uniforms are different.

[wonderpup]

Well the guys got impeccable credentials- as a tax evader par excellence he knows a lot about saving money.

Mind you, looking at this farce even I can see why he might want to keep it out of the hands of these morons.

[ken_ichikawa]

Erm the police get a clothing allowance of about £150 a year, I was talking to a cop the other day after she gave me some work on the side most cops tend to claim a couple pairs of boots.

[jethrotull]

The public sector would be a damn site more efficient if they all had Blackberrys. They are much cheaper than the PAs the public sector use. In the private sector you're either your own PA or you share one. In the public sector they eschew technology in favour of PAs. If the plumber, tractor driver, dope dealer, and CEO all use them then why not the public sector. Bought in bulk they cost far less than the retail price.

[Bloo Loo]

Erm the police get a clothing allowance of about £150 a year, I was talking to a cop the other day after she gave me some work on the side most cops tend to claim a couple pairs of boots.

I used to get 20p a month lamp allowance.

[19 year mortgage 8itch]

Erm the police get a clothing allowance of about £150 a year, I was talking to a cop the other day after she gave me some work on the side most cops tend to claim a couple pairs of boots.

Fluffing or not that sort of work?

[darwin]

As per Sunday Times:

"anomolies" is different amounts paid by departments for office furniture etcc

LOLz

[timebandit]

Did Phillip Green mention anything about registering assets in their wife's name located in a tax haven and paying an obscene sum out in the form of dividends in order to avoid paying tax?

T*sser.

Not expecting just hoping the coalition are planning a tax stitch up of the likes of Philip Green.

Like a director of a private company asking a secretary for a list of compulsory redundancies.

When the list is handed to the director, the director adds the secretary to the list.

I hope the coalition add Philip Green to his own report.

[Bloo Loo]

Did Phillip Green mention anything about registering assets in their wife's name located in a tax haven and paying an obscene sum out in the form of dividends in order to avoid paying tax?

T*sser.

takes a thief to catch a thief.

[hilltop]

The public sector would be a damn site more efficient if they all had Blackberrys. They are much cheaper than the PAs the public sector use. In the private sector you're either your own PA or you share one. In the public sector they eschew technology in favour of PAs. If the plumber, tractor driver, dope dealer, and CEO all use them then why not the public sector. Bought in bulk they cost far less than the retail price.

Can you tell us how many PAs there are in the public sector?

They are not that common in my experience.

[23rdian]

We get our Blackberrys for £50ea which I thought was reasonable

[Redcellar]

We get our Blackberrys for £50ea which I thought was reasonable

And the rest. Phone calls, contract, data allowance etc. That's one major point he was making. It's hundreds per year per employee not just £50.

Blackberry's are for people who 'must' have email instantly, and need to make phone calls on the move too. I worked with public sector and only the top management need that sort of responsiveness. The rest are at their desks enough of the time to use email and voicemail as per normal. It's a blooming joke, but then corporate business grabbed up these toys just for the hell of it too. Most didn't really need it. Though private sector was out of their own profits so it's their call I guess.

[23rdian]

And the rest. Phone calls, contract, data allowance etc. That's one major point he was making. It's hundreds per year per employee not just £50.

Blackberry's are for people who 'must' have email instantly, and need to make phone calls on the move too. I worked with public sector and only the top management need that sort of responsiveness. The rest are at their desks enough of the time to use email and voicemail as per normal. It's a blooming joke, but then corporate business grabbed up these toys just for the hell of it too. Most didn't really need it. Though private sector was out of their own profits so it's their call I guess.

Fair point, the contracts are a bit more expensive than voice @ £2pm

Edited October 10, 2010 by 23rdian

[@contradevian]

And the rest. Phone calls, contract, data allowance etc. That's one major point he was making. It's hundreds per year per employee not just £50.

Blackberry's are for people who 'must' have email instantly, and need to make phone calls on the move too. I worked with public sector and only the top management need that sort of responsiveness. The rest are at their desks enough of the time to use email and voicemail as per normal. It's a blooming joke, but then corporate business grabbed up these toys just for the hell of it too. Most didn't really need it. Though private sector was out of their own profits so it's their call I guess.

Well thats the point. The Blackberrys were given out to desk bound staff too, not people on the move. Still I guess it gave the Blackberry business a much needed boost.

[easy2012]

Well the guys got impeccable credentials- as a tax evader par excellence he knows a lot about saving money.

Mind you, looking at this farce even I can see why he might want to keep it out of the hands of these morons.

The word is avoider not evader.

Yah..get the police to buy from Primark (unless BHS can be as competitive)

Blackberry, Mobile, private phone calls and think different government have different contracts with the mobile ops as well. Certainly lots of opportunites

to rationalise there. Maybe put them on 3 prepaid with unlimited Skype access and just message them.

[Timak]

The word is avoider not evader.

Yah..get the police to buy from Primark (unless BHS can be as competitive)

Blackberry, Mobile, private phone calls and think different government have different contracts with the mobile ops as well. Certainly lots of opportunites

to rationalise there. Maybe put them on 3 prepaid with unlimited Skype access and just message them.

Every single government department, local council, local health authority etc etc etc are run as completely independent organisations.

You could easily rationalise all this with central purchasing, negotiating block discounts etc

However this goes against every "localism" and "decentralisation" push that the Tories push for.

[Gone baby gone]

We get our Blackberrys for £50ea which I thought was reasonable

Does that include the airtime / data / Blackberry back-end server?

No, thought not - and that's expensive bit of a mobile phone, not the handset purchase.

[the_duke_of_hazzard]

The public sector would be a damn site more efficient if they all had Blackberrys. They are much cheaper than the PAs the public sector use. In the private sector you're either your own PA or you share one. In the public sector they eschew technology in favour of PAs. If the plumber, tractor driver, dope dealer, and CEO all use them then why not the public sector. Bought in bulk they cost far less than the retail price.

My missus worked for the Teacher Training Agency four years ago. Her boss "didn't do email", so she would have to spend her days printing off her boss's emails and bringing them to her to read.

[darwin]

My missus worked for the Teacher Training Agency four years ago. Her boss "didn't do email", so she would have to spend her days printing off her boss's emails and bringing them to her to read.

Anyone who "doesn't do email" needs to be kicked out onto the street, P45 in hand.

[assetrichcashpoor]

I work in the public sector and a good 20% of the people there do fukc all of any use for our organisation. If they weren't there tomorrow our productivity wouldn't decrease noticeably, it may even increase because there would be fewer pointless meetings etc.

The usual argument is that although 20% of the people are ineffective, it is not known who they are. In my place that isn't the case, the people that don't do enough are well known. There's someone who our management have been trying to get rid of for valid reasons for many years. This person would have been due about £40k if they received voluntary redundancy when they applied 3 years ago, however our management didn't want to reward this person's failure with a redundancy payment so the person remained on ~£30k a year. So 90k later this person is still in a job, taking up god knows how much of HR's and senior management's time.

Unfortunately there are many others like this person and there isn't a mechanism to make them redundant. In contrast there is a similar european organisation we work with a lot, nearly all their people are on fixed term contracts and overall I would say they don't have the problem with people slacking off. If people aren't pulling their weight or if the job they were recruited for has finished then they are let go.