| | This is David Craig’s
second foray into
writing about the
management consultancy.
A self-proclaimed
“whistleblower” he has
already produced one
book Rip-Off!, which
purported to demonstrate
that the entire
consultancy industry was
a scam. Now he turns
his attention to the
relationship between
consultancy and the UK
public sector, or as the
book’s front cover puts
it “How New Labour are
letting consultants run
off with £70bn of our
money”. £70bn? That’s
a pretty spicy meatball!
Just to drive the point
home, the first page of
every chapter contains a
little doodle of a
consultant running off
with a briefcase stuffed
with taxpayers’ money.
The difference this
time round is that this
time ex-consultant Craig
(not his real name) is
joined by Private Eye
journalist Richard
Brooks. Private Eye is
well known for its
distrust of consultants,
but generally backs it
up with some pretty
resilient research,
normally when dissecting
the shortcomings of the
latest government IT
fiasco. As a result we
have two books jostling
with each other to
occupy the same space:
one a pitiless
examination of New
Labour’s love affair
with big projects and
the private sector; the
other a one-sided
anti-consultant diatribe
born out of Craig’s
Damascene conversion.
It makes for
interesting, if
occasionally
contradictory reading.
What, for example, are
we to conclude about the
public sector employees
who are the victims of
this scam, whether as
commissioners of
consultancy or victims | |
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| | sector expertise is the
panacea for the public
sector and consequent
cronyism. On page 16 we
are warned of the
dangers of “unthinkingly
trying to transpose
private-sector methods
into public services”
and the opening up of
top civil service jobs
to private sector
applicants—the
“Revolving Doors”
chapter which looks at
the interchange between
government and the
consultancy industry is
well-researched and
makes fascinating
reading. By the end of
the book, there are
demands that “business
leaders” be brought in
to run the offices of
state—though presumably
in way which will be
free of the cronyism and
patronage which
characterises New
Labour’s flirtations
with the business
world.
This is not down to
sloppiness (although I
was intrigued to find
myself quoted as “a
leading management
consultant”) but the
twin sources of the
book: on the one hand
patient journalism of
Private Eye and on the
other the guilt and
self-loathing of
ex-consultant Craig. The
chapter on PFI, for
example, lays out its
case extremely well, but
eventually falls foul of
the need to lay
everything at the feet
of the consultancy
industry, often eliding
the distinction between
consultancy, finance
houses and auditors (not
that that’s hard to do).
The accounts of major
IT disasters are as
entertaining as only the
accounts of major IT
disasters can be, but
the book too often flits
between poor government
decisions, public sector
incompetence and actual
consultancy mistakes as | |
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| | if they were all the
same thing.
Incidentally, you will
not be surprised to know
that the £70bn figure is
mainly composed of IT
work. Even here though,
the authors fudge the
accounting – money spent
on outsourcing deals is
lumped in with software
development. Critically,
budget overruns are
always assumed to be a.
waste, and b. the
consultants fault.
No-one’s denying the
existence of major IT
cock-ups, but can we
really conclude from the
high-profile cases that
every government IT
project: “inevitably
repeats all the mistakes
of the past and ends up
years late, hugely over
budget, providing fewer
services than were
promised and vastly
increasing
administrative and
management costs”.
In their urge to
blame consultants for
everything, the authors
even miss a few open
goals, blaming
“outsourcing” and
“privatisation” (the
authors tend to slap
scare quotes round
anything), particularly
contracted-out cleaning
for MRSA infection in
hospitals. I don’t see
what this has really got
to do with consultancy,
but there’s no reason
why a contracted-out
cleaning service
shouldn’t provide a
perfectly good service
provided someone manages
it. The government was
warned years ago,
however, that its
over-insistence on
meeting headline targets
would lead to neglect of
areas like cleaning,
and, yes, an increase in
MRSA.
The weakest parts of
the book are those that
are rehashed from
Rip-Off!, where Craig
tries to convince us
that any and every dodgy | |
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| | practice in consultancy
which he has ever heard
of or been personally
involved in is not only
endemic but standard
operating practice.
This leads to some of
the funniest passages,
such as the final
chapter, where Craig
puts his consultancy hat
of shame on again and
starts lashing out with
gay abandon about how to
“reform” the system.
All consultants’ fees to
be cut immediately by
30%, one-third of all
consultancy projects to
be scrapped immediately.
Any complaints about
breach of contract—put
the Serious Fraud Office
onto them!
Unfortunately, this
sort of stuff undermines
much of what is serious
and good in the book.
There’s a lot of good
stuff about procuring
and purchasing IT
projects, about re-using
software where possible
and using techniques
such as iterative
programming to avoid
“big bang” IT disasters.
It’s often very clear,
reading between the
lines, that in many
cases the real blame
lies with politicians
and civil servants
rather than just the
evil consultants. I
suspect a lot of this
comes from Brooks rather
than Craig, who should
perhaps now go on to
write his own analysis
of the new New Labour
project. By all means
blame consultants for
their shortcomings – but
could we possibly start
the trial this time
without the accused
already dangling from a
rope?
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| | of cost-cutting? On the
one hand the book takes
any civil service union
rep statement as gospel.
We are asked to
sympathise, for example,
with the 30,000 staff
slashed from the DWP
(although even the
authors have to concede
that, “next to £2bn
savings for slashing
jobs, consultancy fees
look like small beer”).
On page 43 Lord Hanson
is quoted approvingly as
saying that “top-level
civil servants are
highly intelligent,
far-seeing and
independent”.
Elsewhere they don’t
fare so well—they are
“easily baffled
mandarins”, who are
“demonstrably
incompetent”, and
“prioritise their own
well-being over their
duty of care with our
money.” A top civil
servant who sits next to
Craig at dinner and
makes essentially the
same point as Hanson is
rubbished as an
aristocratic ponce. By
the final chapter of the
book Craig is calling
for “an axe” to be taken
to Health Service
administration.
Similar
contradictions abound.
On page 16 we are warned
about “consultants (who)
impose targets...that
are too simplistic
and...counterproductive”.
By the end of the book
Craig is calling for
non-medical and
non-cleaning staff
expenses to be
restricted to 7% of
staff cost in 2008. The
book is savagely
critical of New Labour’s
assumption that private | |
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