Rambler said:
I can't speak for whichever dept you're familiar with Bassnation, but my friend's experience working at the FSA is that it's staffed by drunks (literally) with no work to do who are there only because it's too much hassle to sack them; now that is a waste of taxes.
But as an honest inquiry, from what I gather the whole deportees business comes down to a failure of two govt departments to properly communicate. That sort of thing simply cannot be the responsibility - other than in the most completely general way - of the Home Secretary. It's the job of the leaders of his departments to organise staff and working practices to ensure that ministerial objectives are put into practice. The Home Office is massive, so these things get delegated - to civil servants at varying degrees up the ladder. Does the buck always end with the minister in question? And why should it?
Like I say, I'm interested to hear - my info on the civil service is second hand at best.
its also the responsibility, up the food chain, to manage this communication. if the home office is too big to deal with all these areas and should be split, thats the governments responsibilty too.
the way this would work in the commercial world, is that the manager would be sacked,
plus the incompetent staff.
that the manager shouldn't be held responsible for staffs mistakes is the same argument that businesses use to avoid being held responsible for corporate manslaughter when things like rail disasters happen. the fact that these things are big and distributed does not let them off the hook. they should have dealt with it. if you don't make them deal with it, these things happen more and more often.
the only lever we have is to sack them when things go wrong - what other sanction would work?
but yeah, i'd agree with your friends assessment. but worse than those people are the predatory consulting companies taking advantage of the civil services cluelessness to reap big money with no checks, balances and accountability. i was involved in a project that cost millions (no names mentioned) which screwed up due to lack of direction and the fact that they got rid of all the good staff and kept the bad ones. ultimately no-one was held responsible and they'll basically create another system to replace it which will also cost several million - which will go straight into the pockets of some big IT consultancy firm whos paid off some MP or high ranking civvie for the deal.
its an absolute disgrace in my view. thats my hard earned cash being wasted there which could be being spent on helping the poorest in society.
sorry, ranting a bit now. had to get that off my chest.