Jobs for the Boys

Adam is the man mid pic.

The following letter regarding the former Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram, has just been sent to PCS members:

Colleagues,

I thought you might be interested in the well being of our old friend Mr. Ingram.

As you know the architect of Collocation, FDSCi, 13,000 job cuts, mass privatisation and pay cuts was the man who did not “give a shit” about Civil Servants. Sadly he stepped down from Ministerial duties last year. He is much missed by PCS members.

Fortunately, our loss has been others gain.

As well as being appointed Chair of the Prospect Parliamentary Group (lucky Prospect members), the Guardian reports today “Congratulations to Adam Ingram, who stepped down after six selfless years as Defence minister, for he has received the green light to become a consultant to EDS, one of the MoD’s largest and most controversial suppliers”.

The article goes on to say that “The advisory committee on business appointments, which regulates these things, said Ingram “should not become personally involved in lobbying UK ministers or crown officials,including special advisers, on behalf of his new employer for a year”.

Incidentally - and completely coincidentally - I stumbled across the following press cutting from 2006 whilst looking at this story:

The details of a financial sett lement given to EDS by the Ministry of Defence have been withheld from British taxpayers because corporate America likes to keep its cards close to its chest.

EDS said in March it was seeking “adjustments” to compensate for the “financial impact” of changes made by the Ministry of Defence to its requirements for its £2.3bn Defence Information Infrastructure (DII) project.

Neither EDS nor the MOD would provide details after they reached an agreement over the contract change in May. But EDS said its second quarter results, released this month, would.

However, when the results were published on 1 August, they failed to mention how much the MOD had paid EDS.

The matter has been raised in Parliament by Mike Hancock, Liberal Democrat MP for Portsmouth South, last month. He wanted to know precisely how much more had been paid to EDS.

The £2.3bn contract, according to analysts at Ovum, was expected to deliver the MOD £170m of savings in its first three years, with £43m of this expected to be gleaned in the first year.

MOD Minister of State for Armed Forces Adam Ingram refused to answer Hancock’s Parliamentary question, saying the details were “commercially sensitive”.

Neither EDS nor the MOD would elaborate on why the payment was confidential.

A source close to the deal said EDS would be upset if it were to reveal the payment details. EDS has already attracted flak ov er compensation payments and confidentiality arrangements with the British government.

In April, MPs on the Treasury Committee said a £71.25m payment EDS was ordered to make in compensation for its delivery of a shoddy tax credits computer system had the “appearance of impropriety”.

Their problem was that £26.5m of EDS’ payment was contingent on the firm winning more government business. This detail had been hidden by a confidentiality clause. The National Audit Office cited it as a reason why confidentiality clauses should be banned from government contracts.

I am sure members will be delighted to learn that Mr Ingram will no doubt be back at MoD lobbying for EDS in 12 months time. I am also sure our members who were privatised under DII and are now threatened with compulsory redundancy will wish to welcome the new employee in an appropriate manner.

Regards,

Paul

National Officer
PCS CSG

I am never too sure about this sort of thing at the best of times. It doesn't seem right that people who have worked in Government or the public sector should then be able to move on almost immediately and work with the very same private companies that they had had official dealings with. In fact I thought there were quite rigid guidelines about this sort of thing, because it could be against public interest!

I investigated a bit further and found even more information on the PCS website. One particular bit of the article caught my eye, especially as everyone else seems to be struggling with the credit crunch:

Members will also want to note that Mr Ingram according to the ‘Register of Members Interests’ is the “Non-executive Chairman of SignPoint Secure Ltd; emergency communications. (£45,001-£50,000), Non-executive Chairman of Argus Scotland Ltd; design and construction services in the urban environment. (£20,001-£25,000) and Consultant to Argus Libya; design and construction services in the urban environment. (£20,001-£25,000)”

This means that before Mr Ingram has been rewarded for his upcoming work for EDS, he will be receiving between £85,003-£100,000 for his work with these three companies. This is on top of his basic MP salary of £61,820.