More benefits of contracting out.

Here’s another good example of what good value contracting out services to private companies can be.

SERCO is a massive multinational, one of its contracts is taking prisoners from police stations to courts to prisons.

If they miss a targeted delivery, if they aren’t making enough revenue – what do they do?

They fiddle the figures.

m

It’s Ok, Boss -

I’ll Cooka Da books

Do you think I’m worried about being sued?

Oh no, I don’t think so – because they called the Feds in.

Have a look at this article from The Independent, I think the confusing reference to £40 million is to the profits made from the contract;

Fraud alleged in Serco prisoner escort contracts

Services giant agrees to repay past profits from its £40m-a-year contract and forgo all future earnings

Cahal Milmo   

Wednesday 28 August 2013

 

Serco, one of Britain's largest companies, is to be investigated for fraud after the Government and the services giant called in police to examine irregularities in records kept for its £285m prisoner escorting contract.

Justice Secretary Chris Grayling announced that the company has agreed to repay past profits from its £40m-a-year contract and forgo all future earnings after an investigation suggested records relating to the delivery of prisoners to courts had been falsified by members of its staff.

 

Mr Grayling said the review by Ministry of Justice (MoJ) officials had not found evidence that knowledge of the alleged malpractice reached the boardroom of the company, which last year had revenues of £4.8bn, but warned Serco that it faces being frozen out of all future public contracts.

 

Serco is one of two companies, along with G4S, which are also being investigated for allegedly over-charging the taxpayer in the “low tens of millions” to monitor non-existent electronic tags on prisoners, some of which had been assigned to dead detainees.

 

The Prisoner Escort and Custodial Services (PECS) contract is one of a gamut of public sector deals held in Britain by Serco, which earns hundreds of millions of pounds a year for providing services ranging from border controls to managing London's cycle hire scheme.

 

The MoJ said an audit of Serco's contract for transporting prisoners between court and jails in London and East Anglia had found “evidence of potentially fraudulent behaviour” by employees. The alleged fraud concerns the recording of prisoners having been delivered to courts when they had not - a key measure of performance for the contract. An audit is understood to have produced evidence that the figures may have been manipulated to enhance performance and earnings.

 

Mr Grayling said: “It has become very clear there has been a culture within parts of Serco that has been totally unacceptable, and actions which need to be investigated by the police.

 

”We have not seen evidence of systemic malpractice up to board level, but we have been clear with the company - unless it undertakes a rapid process of major change... then it will not win public contracts in the future”.

 

Did you notice the reference to G4S?

This is SERCO’s rival in the provision of contracted out services to the government. Their ‘tagging’ department is being investigated for making up figures when they were claiming for work for installing electronic tags on sentenced criminals – they were making things up too.

But it’s OK, it’s only in ‘the low tens of millions’.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)

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