Waste report - MoD

Members will be aware of a new wave of civilian job cuts being planned by MoD. We believe a minimum of 10,000 jobs are at risk. It is imperative therefore that we all play our part in countering the arguments by the main political parties that justifies their plans to slash our jobs.

The Guardian newspaper on 6 January reported that the MoD Equipment Programme is £35 billion over budget and five years behind schedule. This is the real waste that needs to be cut in MoD and our union believes that MoD can find many ways to make savings that do not involve yet another round of site closures and job cuts.

Our message regarding procurement is clearly having an impact.

Billions of pounds have been wasted by MoD with an over reliance on contracting out and privatising services. The Hadden Cave report released at the end of 2009 directly criticised the department’s obsession with privatisation and cuts. Our union is telling the government loud and clear that we are not prepared to sit back while members' jobs are cut and the vital services provided to the frontline are run into the ground.

We are now looking to build a dossier to support our messages of where savings could be made in the MoD. This will give all members the opportunity to report where they see real waste in the Department. The message we want to continue to get across is that the Government should not be looking to cut jobs and services but should improve efficiency by addressing the waste issue.

Examples might include high costs and delays for services supplied by contractors, expensive consultants and IT failures.

If you have any stories please feed them by email to wastereport@pcs.org.uk. All entries will be treated with the strictest of confidence.

Please help our union build our case and protect our jobs, sites and communities.

PCS pressure forces MoD U turn on sale of Kentigern House

As we go into what could be the most difficult year ever for MoD members, our union starts the New Year by welcoming the news that the department have done a complete U turn regarding the sale of Kentigern House in Glasgow.

Our union has campaigned from day one to have this sale stopped, as although it would have netted approximately £40m in the short term, the estimated cost to the taxpayer over the 20-year lease would have been in the region of £150m. Our union quite correctly pointed out that this was a complete waste of taxpayer’s money and another example of MoD’s irrational short term thinking.

Although our union was told there was nothing we could do to stop the sale going ahead, we campaigned on a number of fronts:

Members in both the PCS MoD and PCS EDS/Hewlett Packard branches in Kentigern House petitioned their local MP’s to stop the sale.

The PCS Scotland committee lobbied MSP’s, both in writing and in face-to-face meetings
The MoD GEC arranged via the PCS parliamentary group for parliamentary questions to be raised in Westminster concerning Kentigern House.

The MoD GEC members in Defence Estates have brought up the proposed sale at every opportunity in recent months.

The sale of Kentigern House was one of the main topics of discussion at the Make Your Vote Count (MYVC) hustings event for the recent Glasgow North by-election.

Our union is in absolutely no doubt that all of this campaigning work has put pressure on the Ministry of Defence.. Our union will continue to ensure that any further MoD proposals like this have true value for money for the taxpayer; if not, we will fight them vigorously.

In 2010, we face the continued national threat to our redundancy terms; we face £180M of job cuts as a result of the current spending round and plans (PR10)) and we face a general election with all mainstream parties seemingly on a path of public sector destruction and devastation.

Our union will continue to fight all of these threats. As we have seen with the proposed sale of Kentigern House, if members are up for the fight and if we campaign in a co-ordinated, determined manner we can and will win these battles ahead.

PS - The proposed sale of neighbourhood five in Abbeywood has also been cancelled as part of this decision.

Conference Season?

I know it is only January and the PCS Group and National Conferences take place in May, however, motions need to be written and members standing for the Group elections need to ensure their nominations and election statements are prepared in advance.

Full details of this and a timetable for MoD Group Elections and Conference can be seen at this link.