The Socialist 29 June 2011

Next Step: One-Day Public Sector Strike

Next step: one-day public sector strike

Con-Dems' pension attack demands coordinated and determined response

Unison conference Socialist Party meeting spells out action needed

Unison delegates reject leadership proposals

Universities on the cheap!

Trade unionists must fight for LGBT rights

Western governments more concerned about business deals than human rights in China

News in brief

'Hard lesson' for tube management as driver wins reinstatement

Shafted By AEI cables

'No redundancies!' say Forest Hill school teachers

Trade union news in brief

Save heart services for children!

Jobs threat at Derriford hospital

Nuneaton: exterminate the cuts!

Marching against cuts in Haringey

Who speaks up for workers?

Why I left Labour - and joined the socialists

Public money into private firms' hands

Greece, Spain, Britain... We won't pay for their crisis

Syria: Regime steps up repression... but opposition continues to grow

The Pitmen Painters

Workers say: Renationalise the railways!

Private railways rip off fares

National Pensioners Convention parliament

Socialist Party summer camp - bigger and better than ever!

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Privatisation

Public money into private firms' hands

Richard Owen

If the government was really interested in saving money, it would address the issue of how much they are being charged for goods and services.

I recently spoke to someone within the Department of Transport and the amount of money being handed to the private sector is staggering.

Within the last year their office spent £5,000 on a garden shed that you can get for a couple of hundred quid; and nearly £1,000 on an air compressor, the type you can buy from any DIY outlet for under £150. To rub salt into the wound it turns out that when it broke they could not fix it as the office had not agreed to a yearly maintenance cover costing another £1,000.

This is on top of the day-to-day costs, for example £110 an hour for a cleaner. The cleaner is on the minimum wage, the rest of the money goes in "admin" charges!

£49.99 went on a pair on safety boots, the same boots you can buy elsewhere for £17; £15 for a box of pens, enough said.

£4 for emergency rain ponchos, the same type you can buy at any festival for £2.50. They cost about 20p each if you order in bulk direct from the manufacturer.

There is a standing joke within the office. The cost of anything to the government will be the real cost of the item trebled and add 50%.

This is a small office in a small department. If this type of overspend is multiplied up to take into account bigger offices and bigger departments, you get some idea of the money private companies are making from the government.

If the government is truly committed to saving public money then they will start by ending these payments to private companies and not by cutting jobs and services.

In this issue

30 June pensions strike

Next step: one-day public sector strike