Government Quangos are just a drain on resources
JOHN Payne’s letter regarding CCGs last week highlights just one of a plethora of Government funded bodies created to supposedly enhance public sector operations by improving effectiveness, efficiency, customer service and accountability.
The reality however is often very different and all they provide is a drain on public funds that would be better spent on the “front line”.
They are commonly referred to as QUANGOS – around 1,200 across the UK with personnel that are appointed, not elected.
All the main political parties have had a hand in their establishment and unless you suffer some form of injustice at the hands of the public sector, you will never come across them.
If you have had cause to complain and been persistent enough to see the process through (it can take years) you may well end up disillusioned and exhausted with a feeling of having wasted a huge amount of time and emotional energy – think about Hillsborough.
They typify the Government’s approach to problem solving - rather than deal with the problem at source through better management, set up a body to audit/regulate the service that costs a fortune and that has no real accountability itself.
The NHS has (at least) one in the PHSO as the last step in the complaints procedure.
It has neither the will nor the expertise to undertake what are often com- plicated investigations and has a clear disposition towards the NHS so is hardly truly objective.
Even other NHS regulatory bodies criticise it, but it is still being funded.
The Government talks a lot about accountability but provides no mechanism for the public to follow it up.
The police have two in the IPCC and the PCC – completely different acronyms and surely intended to confuse.
Both contain the words “police” & “commission(er)”, one is to do with “crime”, the other to do with “complaints”.
Whilst one is “independent” (the word is in its title), the other is evidently not.
Both are funded from the public purse.
The latter was established to hold the police to account for not providing the service it should, but has no remit to examine police operational practices, in which case it cannot discharge its own responsibilities! That’s how daft it gets and I’m sure the Chief Constable would rather spend the money on more police officers.
The end result is not transparency but exactly the opposite where accountability is shrouded in layers of bureaucracy and self-interest which invariably allows the perpetrators to get off scot-free.
We all need to wise-up and push for the money being wasted on unnecessary admin to be redirected to where it is needed most. A Clarke