Monday 31 October 2011

One Barnet - Transforming Barnet Council - into Steptoe and Son

And on the theme of Steptoe and son, a large document just appeared on the doorstep. I've scanned the first four pages. It's entitled "One Barnet Procurement Principles" and placed these on the Future Shape Leaks blog - http://barnetfutureshape.blogspot.com/2011/10/barnet-council-secret-documents-one.html - for your perusal.

Section 1 rather ironically says "with the number of staff involved in the process managing confidentiality will be very difficult" - No s**t Sherlock. Barnet are always good for a snigger, if not proper punctuation !

Section two gets into the meat of how the Council want to sell us down the river. It proudly announces "The Council does not have to accept a variant bid if it is the highest scoring, so long as it has reserved this right in advance". In other words, we can take a worse bid, so long as we tell everyone the bidding scoring system is a complete joke.

Section 3 talks about new jobs created by the One Barnet project. It seems to say "We don't know if we want these to be in Barnet or not". My guess is that when cash is king, not is the likely outcome.

Section 4 is a lot of "newspeak" waffle which seems to say "We haven't really got a clue how this will work, so we'll cross our fingers and hope for the best".

Section 5 goes into a lengthy discussion of how the whole process is all about shafting the pension rights of Barnet Council employees.

Section 6 says that local jobs only need be protected if there is no other choice.


I guess it is section 7 that gives the game away "Accomodation can be provided free of charge or at market rental, either way, the cost of hosting services will be a charge to the Council".


It really is a horrible document. Part II will be analysed later this week. When it comes down to it, it is clear that Barnet wishes to apply the Albert Steptoe management principle. Viewers of the series will remember that Albert Steptoe employed his son. His son was welcome to do whatever he wanted, just so long as it completely suited Albert. This is exactly the same attitude as Barnet Council have to their staff.


It is disgusting

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