A quick pre-work post to flag this news, reported in the Telegraph:
Written evidence submitted to Parliament by a former chief auditor at A4e shows how an “unethical culture” led to “systemic fraud” at the company, which holds major government contracts. When concerns were raised about wrongdoing with senior managers, little was done to address the widespread abuse of taxpayers’ money, the whistleblower alleged.
A document put to MPs also described serious problems at another welfare to work provider, Working Links, which runs three major contracts on the Coalition’s £5 billion jobs scheme and is part-owned by the Government.
..
In his evidence, Mr Hutchinson claimed that the leaders of both companies oversaw a “disgraceful misuse of government and taxpayer funding”, characterised by unethical behaviour, mismanagement, inadequate corporate governance and risk management and excessive payments in salaries.
…
In his evidence, Mr Hutchinson described workers faking documents supposed to confirm successful placements of the unemployed. In one case, Mr Hutchinson said, an investigation into fraud at the Newcastle office of A4e in October 2010 revealed staff had used a stamp from an employer to wrongly show that people had been given jobs.
This is well worth reading in full – and serves as a reminder that the dynamics of private enterprise bring problems, as well as advantages, in their wake:
