MoD JPA system at risk of cyberattacks

The accounting officer for the Ministry of Defence has said that data losses and weaknesses in the department's information infrastructure has left it vulnerable to virtual attacks.

In the MoD's resource accounts for 2009-2010, Bill Jeffrey says that although the department is working to improve awareness of potential online attacks, the risks to its cybersecurity is still a worry.

The department's Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system, which provides services including payroll functions and centralised records of service, is also singled out as a problem area by the accounting officer.

He says that despite a number of steps being taken to improve the system, "there are still concerns over the quality of elements of the underlying data set".

"This has meant that we still have a number of unresolved issues to do with payments and visibility of data on the numbers of army reservists. As part of plans to address these, the army will be undertaking a major data cleansing exercise," Jeffrey concludes.

The New Statesmen Interview: Alan B'Stard, former MP

Were you elated at the collapse of New Labour?

Actually, I had mixed feelings. It's not widely known, but New Labour was my invention, a party designed to be even more accommodating to the interests of big business than the Tories. Tony understood. Gordon never got it.

Peter Mandelson claims that he was the architect of New Labour.

Well, he would, wouldn't he?

Did you vote in this year's election?

Let's just say I helped to influence the outcome.

Do you think the coalition will succeed in turning around the economy?

I'll do the jokes, thank you very much.

Will the Lib Dems survive the coalition?

I refer you to my answer of a few moments ago.

What's your opinion of the proposed changes to the voting system?

I'm in favour of them. The Alternative Vote is quite a complicated system, requiring electors to rank candidates in order of preference. This should deter a largely bovine and innumerate electorate from attempting to cast their ballots, which can only improve governance. Surely it's no coincidence that this nation's decline commenced around the time the right to vote was extended to women and the working classes.

What are the main challenges facing the new government?

You mean apart from a total lack of political nous and knowledge of the real world? The central problem is the lack of true radicalism. When this country was great, we didn't have the welfare state, a National Health Service or free education. What we did have was an empire, no income tax and a f*****g big navy. You don't need a PhD to work it out, do you?

And if the government asked for your advice?

I'd tell them to start thinking outside the box. For example, Rupert Murdoch told me in confidence that he would throw his weight and cash behind the coalition if only Vince Cable would change his name to Vince Satellite. And yet the man refuses. I'd also tell Dave to get out of Afghanistan as quickly as possible. There are far safer places where one can obtain top-grade opium.

Are we in for a double-dip recession?

We'll be lucky to get away with double. Banking and property were the only profitable sectors of the economy, and these are the very industries that the coalition is about to destroy. Either Butter Osborne has no idea or he's a secret Trotskyite.

How can you say banking was profitable?

The state bailed out banks to the tune of £750bn.The banks may not have made money, but bankers made a fortune, and spent their bonuses on enormous houses. If you ever sold your pathetic flat in north London at a profit, thank a banker for ramping up the market.

Are you opposed to tax increases, then?

Yes, but only on principle, as I don't pay tax.

You're a non-dom?

No, I just don't pay tax.

Are you taking an interest in the Labour leadership election?

Yes, in the same way I take an interest in London Zoo's attempts to persuade giant pandas to mate. The process is long-winded, pathetic and bound to end in failure.

Who is going to be the next Labour leader?

Does it matter? The party has no policies or reason to exist. And consider the candidates: three men too spineless to oppose Gordon Brown when he was driving the party bus over the cliff, one man who - amazingly - actually thought Brown knew what he was doing, and Diane Abbott, known mainly for appearing on late-night TV with those other left-wing firebrands Michael Portillo and Andrew Neil.

Now that you have retired from full-time politics, how do you spend your time?

Mind-boggling quantities of sex, mostly. But that doesn't mean I have renounced politics, as Sarah Palin will confirm if you drop 5mg of something into her drink. There's a girl who really swings to the right. And I mean swings.

What about your business interests?

I have a vast and complex business empire, manipulating world markets in several commodities. It can be hard work - it's tricky organising catastrophic oil well explosions, you know. But I simply wasn't prepared to pay full price for BP, soon to be rebranded B'Stard Petroleum.

Was there a plan?

Just the usual. World domination. Infinite sex. Immortality. So far, so good.
What would you like to forget?You. And England's pathetic performance in the World Cup. But mainly you.

Are we all doomed?

You're all doomed. I'm going to be fine.

Defining Moments

1987 Elected to the seat of Haltemprice, becoming the then youngest Tory MP at 31
1989 Attempts to assassinate Gorbachev
1990 Following (true) reports of his affairs with teenage girls, sues the Times - and wins
1992 Kills Robert Maxwell, having smuggled him out of Britain for a large fee
1993 Orchestrates Black Wednesday
1997 Tony Blair, his protégé, comes to power
2007 Abandons New Labour to become head of the World Bank

Auditors refuse to sign off MoD accountes

National Audit Office says 'systemic' problems mean defence ministry is unable to account for £6bn of equipment

The National Audit Office today refused to sign off the Ministry of Defence's annual accounts, for the fourth year in a row.

The spending watchdog said the MoD was unable to account properly for more than £6bn of equipment. The head of the audit office, Amyas Morse, said that despite efforts by the MoD to tackle the issue, there remained "systemic and deep-rooted" problems with its asset management system.

He said it had emerged that the problems were more extensive than previously thought as the work done to track down the equipment brought fresh difficulties to light.

The NAO found the MoD was unable to account for the whereabouts of £5.5bn of spares and other stocks, and £752m of military equipment, including firearms and 5,961 Bowman radios worth £184m.

"Despite action by the department to improve its asset management and accounting, the issues I have identified are systemic and deep-rooted," Mr Morse said. "The level of control exercised by the department is not yet sufficient to enable me to provide an opinion on a significant proportion of assets reported in the financial statements."

The MoD said that the issues raised by the NAO had no impact on the provision of essential equipment to frontline troops. "The National Audit Office has recognised that the MoD has improved procedures for inventory management and, by the end of March this year, had completed a full reconciliation of Bowman radios," a spokesman said. "We are continuing to work hard to improve our inventory management and ensure our accounting systems become compliant with financial reporting standards, but recognise that both issues will take time to be rectified."

Corporate Greed Before Public Services... Again!

30 more British corporations have unsurprisingly come out in favour of Tory plans to give them tax breaks at the expense of what they euphemistically term "government waste" and we know to be our jobs, our pay and our pensions.

To counter this, we suggest that we could all do our personal bit towards protecting our jobs, our pay and our pensions. The immediate and most effective way would be for us all to boycott goods and services of all of those companies with immediate effect. Companies such as easyJet and Travelodge, as well as the more usual suspects such as Virgin and B&Q. Even better would be to write or email such companies and let them know how you feel.

The full list of greedy corporations sucking up today to gain the patronage of the percieved victors of the next election are:Kirby Adams, Chief Executive, Corus; Surinder Arora, Chairman, Arora International Hotels; Stefan Barden, Chief Executive, Northern Foods; Robert Bensoussan, Executive Chairman, LK Bennett; Simon Blagden, Chairman, Fujitsu Telecommunications (Europe); Tony Brown, Chief Executive, Beales; Chris Dawson, Founder and Managing Director, The Range; Sir John Egan; Ralph Findlay, Chief Executive, Marston’s plc; Stephen Goodyear, Chief Executive, Young & Co’s Brewery PLC; Anthony Habgood, Chairman, Reed Elsevier; Andy Harrison, Chief Executive, easyJet; Peter Harrison, Chief Executive, Furniture Village; Grant Hearn, Chief Executive, Travelodge; Peter Hindle, Chief Executive, Jewson; Neil Hornby, Chairman, Hornby plc and Umeco plc; Luke Johnson, Founder of Risk Capital Partners and Chairman of Royal Society of Arts; John King, Chief Executive, House of Fraser; Richard Kirk, Chief Executive, The Peacock Group; Simon Lockett, Chief Executive, Premier Oil Plc; Rick Medlock, CFO, Inmarsat Plc; Mike Norris, Chief Executive, Computacenter; Tony Pidgeley, Group Chairman, Berkeley Group Holdings Plc; Jamie Ritblat, Chief Executive, Delancey; Nick Robertson, Chief Executive, ASOS; Tim Steiner, Chief Executive, Ocado; Michael Turner, Chief Executive, Fuller, Smith & Turner Plc; Tom Wells, Chairman, Charles Wells Ltd and Muntons plc; Nick Wheeler, Founder, Charles Tyrwhitt; Bob Wigley, Chairman of Sovereign Reversions plc.

Redundancy Payouts Cut to Statutory Minimum

QinetiQ's new chief executive wants to cut redundancy payouts to the statutory minimum – a maximum of 30 weeks' pay for older workers – later this year, as the company plans to make 1000 of its 6500 workers redundant. He also wants to cut the notice period of six months for compulsory redundancy, along with other staff terms and conditions.

These are the same minimum terms that are being forced upon us under the new terms of Civil Service Compensation Scheme.

Read more here.

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.