There is a certain disingenuousness about Richard Prebble hassling government departments for poor contract management. He currently makes his living telling stories about how dreadful the old Post Office was. One of the major understandings of new right theory is that anything that isn't exposed to competition (and preferably a profit motive and/or a market) will a) get larger, b) be inefficient, and c) be unresponsive to the people who set it up in the first place.
So why is he surprised that the Ministry of Education is managing its contracts poorly? It's not like they are exposed to competition or any sense of getting to enjoy any savings they make. So, surely, they would be crap.
Which raises another problem. What solution is he going to suggest? Given that he has spent the last 20 years explaining the problem? And if it works for the police force, why not other publicly-funded options?
As an aside, the stories about the Post Office are very funny, and it does appear to have been inefficient. But the corporate sector provides the info for Dilbert, so I doubt inefficiency is the sole perview of state-run organisations.
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In other news, I have bought a large blue swiss ball, and am attempting to watch the rugby while balancing on it. This is okay until the game gets exciting and I start bouncing up and down. Oh well...
Posted by carla at October 23, 2003 10:45 PM