The Great British Rake Off
Mark Fielding
Independent Non Exec Director - Helping business owners succeed - SME Expert - Speaker - Mentor - Business Adviser.
The island of squander and scandal
Sometimes we wonder if Ireland, once the land of saints and scholars, could nowadays be more correctly called an island of squander and scandal. ISME has asked before, and will do so again here, that investigative journalists turn their attention to the massive waste of public funds that the Controller and Auditor General itemises year after year. His latest fritter files, just published, include;
- The massive loss incurred at what was meant to have been a prison in Thornton Hall.
- The Eircode system that is already out of date.
- Irregularities in school meals payments where the State paid for more meals than there were students to eat them.
These are only a flavour of what’s contained in the C&AG’s account.
Warning; we strongly recommend a visit to your GP for sedation before the reading the full report
Every euro that has gone missing or that has been misspent is a euro that could have been used to cure the chronic illness afflicting our hospitals or building houses for the homeless. Is it only business people who can do the joined up thinking and see the double whammy of wanton waste for which no one is held accountable? Money wasted is money that can’t be spent properly, elsewhere.
20 years athinking about doing something
When things go wrong in the private sector incompetents lose their jobs; dishonest people get fired and frequently face criminal prosecution. Public Accounts Committee chairman John McGuinness @JMcGuinnessTD commented on the report that “The waste of public money will not end unless civil servants responsible can be fired.” He also said that the C&AG’s office “…should be given powers to name specific civil servants who are guilty of causing waste through either negligence or poor performance.” However, Mr. McGuinness, a Fianna Fáil TD for nearly two decades, has had plenty of time to do something about it but hasn’t got around to it yet. Neither has any other party. That would be a step too far for our ‘leaders’.
A truly great RTE blockbuster
One of the great TV moments on RTE in recent years was watching @davidmurphyRTE accosting Michael Fingleton in Dublin Airport asking him about alleged wrongdoing. It drew a huge audience, just like RTE says it wants to do all the time. So, here’s an ISME idea. Every year the C&AG produces enough material for @RTE to chase down dozens if not hundreds of senior public sector wasters whose departments he has conveniently identified for alleged wrongdoing. Now who amongst you wouldn’t watch the a programme called the Excess Factor or The Great Irish Rake Off as journalists posing as junior civil servants suddenly pounce on Secretaries General or Department Heads asking them, for the first time ever, to account for themselves? If the State broadcaster (sorry, I think we’ve spotted the first glitch!) took on this project, we at ISME will gladly donate any royalties accruing for creating this programme format to the RTE Benevolent Fund. #anytakers
WiseTime for Personal and Professional Development-
9 年Thank you for a thought-provoking article. In my view, it is all a question of leadership (both in public and private sectors). Leaders need strong vision, the courage to remain focused on the real issues, and the savvy to change when right to do so. The fear of changing course and the temptation to become mired in petty politics in order to protect image and reputation is very compelling. Standards fall away as soon as personal issues, and protecting the corporate image take precedence, with the degree of disastrous consequence lucidly articulated by Mr Fielding. Corruption begins with the individual,and spreads from the individual to the culture within a community, institution or organisation. The bigger the organisation the worse the fall-out. In government, we see the misspent resources, the wastage, the scandals, the cover-ups with the ensuing negative impact on a great many lives. The solution? How much is invested in helping well-meaning leaders to recognise and address their blind spots? We all have them, and unless we create a culture where it is safe to admit our failures and change, we will, like Icarus, fly too close to the sun and bring ourselves and those around us down with us. We need to encourage structured time for reflection in the busiest of lives. Each of us has a part to play in turning things around and creating the soaring Irish Take Off! https://wisetime.org/
It is quite fascinating to see an article that claims "When things go wrong in the private sector incompetents lose their jobs; dishonest people get fired and frequently face criminal prosecution" and then goes on to mention Michael Fingleton. Irish Nationwide (private sector) ran up bills of €5 billion for the State, supported by glowing audit reports from (private sector) auditors KPMG and frequent adoring articles by Shane Ross in the (private sector) Sunday Indo. When can we expect to see the criminal prosecution there? The reason why wastage in the public sector is so visible is simply because the public sector publishes these reports in the public domain. If the equivalent reports for the private sector were published, we would see a startling array of waste, fraud and incompetence – all of which is normally dealt with quietly, behind closed doors. The public/private divide is not quite as big as some people would like you to believe.
Co-Owner at Logue & O'Connor Training and Consultancy Ltd.
9 年And us SME's crying out for a little funding....If we even got a portion of fthe waste and misspent monies, there would be a lot less people of the live register
Recovering Accountant & Mastermind Facilitator
9 年Mark Fielding Great article. We could be here all day listing examples of waste and inefficiencies with public spending. I often wonder who is to blame - Governments for not tackling this or us for not kicking up more stink about it.
Music Promoter, Music Publisher and Artist Management at LCM Promos
9 年Brilliant article!!!