Jun 10
Whitehall; unfit for purpose …….
Guido has been absent from these pages for a little while - mostly because his paymasters have burdened him with a very large and complex task, and partly because he has been able to take a short break in the Highlands. Nut he has watched keenly the debacles in Whitehall and laughed uproariously at the Nation’s Illustrious Leader’s admission last week, “That Labour have not had a good week!” Rest assured dear reader, Guido wished more than anything to be able to get to a computer with internet access, and make a comment.
This morning he sat down to do so, and discovered that everything he truly wished to point our - or nearly everything - has been said by the Gray Monk under the title of Blair’s legacy. The Monk points out all the things that Guido was about to write on, the complete lack of cohesion between Departments, the lack of joined up thinking between departm,ents and, even worse, within them, the corrupt Treasury imposed system of “preferred suppliers” which allows hugely expensive projects to be awarded to a supplier chosen from a list without any cometitive tendering and so on.
The only thing the Monk has failed to mention is the arrogant and frequently abusive “Ministerial Special Advisers” who now hold sway over the Civil Servants, who, despite their faults, are generally at least courteous, are allowed to intervene directly in some functions, given unlimited access to Ministers and Guido has even heard of one who routinely goes over her Ministers head when she can’t get her own way - direct to “Tony”. Cleaning this lot out of Whitehall will take some time, it will certainly take even longer to remodel Whitehall, and that is something that will have to be done if the incompetence and corruption is to stop. Senior Civil Servants do not solve problems or even deal with them, the “word” is that the “own” them. Making a problem your own is apparently the way to make sure you are not threatened in your position. You never solve the problem, you “manage” it, using it as a lever to fend off budget cuts, staff reduction and anything else that will threaten your Empire.
That is, and has long been Whitehall’s problem. There are simply too many Emperors and too many Empires. Guido once worked in a Department where a new CEO was installed following a period of decline. He spent around four weeks poking in the corners, proding some of the lurking beasts and walking the floor. Then he called a meeting. The Agenda was the first surprise, there were only four items on it and there was no “Any Other Business”. His management of the meeting was superb. He introduced each item, listened carefully to every person’s response around the table, then “summed up” their responses and concluded with ” … so I think we are agreed that …” and the shell shocked Manadarins all nodded and agreed. His closing address to them was a masterpiece and threw down the gauntlet. He told them bluntly that meetings for the sakke of meetings were no longer an option, meetings were to make decisions. Second every Department was to make sure that their activities complimented everyone elses. Any clash or disruption caused through inattention to this facet of Corporate activity would be a discipline matter. Third, his famous closing words, which are still quoted, were; “This organisation has been allowed to split up into several Empires. As of now they are on notice, there is one Empire and one Emperor -the Department is the Empire and I am the Emperor. I do not suffer rivals, particularly those whose ambitions disrupt our Department!”
Surprise, surprise, he turned a failing Department into a successful one. Sadly as soon as he was moved on to the next failure - it fell apart and is no more!
Whitehall cannot continue in its present form. It has to be reformed and it has to be forced to work cohesively and within strict limits of economics and size. And Ministers may be forced to become a hell of a lot more intelligent and competent at the management of their functions. Finally Guido has to add that the culture of “generalist” management, managers who have never been enegaged in the actual function or work they “manage” are probably the single biggest problem in all of this. Because they have no direct knowledge of what they manage they resort to decision making based on “bottom line”, “political requirement” or tie up anyone asking for a decision in the “too hard” range by demanding endless reports, “business cases” and then revisions until the awkward customer goes away.
Whitehall MUST reform, and it must be made fully accountable. The Taxpayers pay these people very generous salaries and very generous perks - we have the right to have them made fully accountable for the mess they and Blair’s cronies have created.
Blair’s legacy? It will be a bleak one!
As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.
Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.
