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Capita Warns On Profit As It Sets Out Drastic Shake-Up

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mikey4444 | 09:10 Wed 31st Jan 2018 | News
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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42885211

The latest in a series of profit warnings, so time for the Government to give Capitia a few juicy contracts then !
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The purpose of outsourcing is to give opportunities for patronage. It is not a cost-saving measure or an efficiency-based one.
08:28 Thu 01st Feb 2018
These companies are given council/government contracts because they're cheap. If councils/ governments elected to spend more money they'd be criticised. Capita probably has already got government contracts. It's another huge company with a finger in every pie.
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Naomi....and when it fails, the tax payer can always come to its rescue....just like Carillion.

Its abut time we stopped all this nonsense, and stopped wasting money by handing out profits to the private sector.
If you don't want the government to employ the private sector, considering the vast number of areas in which the private sector is employed, what do you suggest they do, Mikey?
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We should be doing it ourselves Naomi, just like we used to do. If we need a new Hospital, or clean it, when its built, it should be done by people employed by the tax payer.

Capita operates the London congestion charge....why ?
Capita collects the TV licence fee on behalf of the BBC....again....why ?

If Capita collapses, as it looks as if it might, all that money that the Government threw at the company, which it used to pay its executives and its shareholders will have been wasted, and the tax payer will be left holding the baby.

This isn't a party-political point....outsourcing happened under both Labour and the Tories.

Look at the plight that Carillion has left its pensioners in. While Carillion was under-funding its 11 pension schemes, the company were rewarding its greedy executives with huge salaries and were still paying its shareholders....all this despite that fact of the rising deficit in its pension schemes.

It stinks to high heaven.
When did the Government build its own Hospitals? (or anything else)
If you mean finance I'd agree with you.
//We should be doing it ourselves Naomi, just like we used to do.//

Unfortunately as we have seen time and time again Public Services are just not run correctly. Very soon costs would spiral out of control and taxes would rise very fast - Do you want that?

// If we need a new Hospital// Are you seriously suggesting the Government should get into the houesbuilding business? Cleaning, OK you have a case there although again we end up with unionfied expensive and over managed labour.

//all that money that the Government threw at the company, which it used to pay its executives and its shareholders will have been wasted, and the tax payer will be left holding the baby. //

How? "All that money" is far less than if they did it themselves, plus they have received a service for that money. Unless the contract has been badly written (could well be as Government doesnt have a clue how to run a business) payments will be made at intervals for services performed. Having paid out for third party services I know how this works.

The pension schemes are another matter entirely.
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YMB....the pension schemes are part and parcel of the problem.

Of course we can't expect Government ministers to get their shovels out and build things. But when we award these contracts, we seem to wash our hands of any further involvement every after.

We should have questioned where the money was coming from, to reward the executives and the shareholders so handsomely, when the company itself was going down the pan. And we should most certainly have asked important and urgent questions of the pension funds trustees, about the growing deficit

But we didn't....we just allowed the situation to worse and worse.

Capita, in their defence, appear to have learned something over the last couple of weeks, as they will be cutting dividends to shareholders and there is a real expectation that they will be asking those shareholders for fresh injections of new cash.

I wonder if that would have been the case if this announcement had been made a few weeks or months ago though ?

Meanwhile, it was said on the radio a few mins ago that the deficit in the pension scheme could be as much as £380m by the end of this year.
Mikey, //We should be doing it ourselves Naomi, just like we used to do.//

Imagine the enormity of the task. Taking everything that’s outsourced into government control would be no mean feat. More of your unachievable idealism I’m afraid, Mikey.
//But when we award these contracts, we seem to wash our hands of any further involvement every after. //

You dont really know much about third Party Management do you? And I'm not just talking Government. You can do due diligence but that will often not show up things and you have no control over how they spend THEIR money.

The Pensions issue goes far beyond companies going broke. I think we both are in a reasonable amount of agreement on that and how it should be dealt with.
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Naomi....well, as long as the Tax Payer is happy to stand behind these errant companies, with a large safety net, the situation will continue.

The greedy executives aren't particularly bothered, as they make their fast buck and then disappear. Ditto with the shareholders.

Pity about the estimated 30,000 subcontractors that are facing ruin after the collapse of Carillion though, is it ?

Not to mention all the pensioners facing a very uncertain future ?
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Then we agree on something then YMB.
Mikey, I don’t know the answer but I do know that it’s impossible to achieve the idealism you bang on about. You have to be realistic.
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Naomi....no, you clearly don't know the answer but to give eye-wateringly large sums of public money to private firms, for public work and then to walk away and take no more interest is not the way to proceed.

Even when it was known that Carillion was in serious difficulties, the present Government still threw money at the Company. That shows a level of incompetence in the Treasury that beggars belief.

I could build a house if I wanted to, so I might be tempted to give money to a builder to do it for me.

But it would be foolish in the extreme, if I handed over the money and then walked away, especially if the local paper were full of reports that the builder was in serious financial difficulty. I would be hovering over he builder like a plague.
Mikey, it’s been explained to you before that forecasting or registering a fall in profits doesn’t equate to a company in ‘serious difficulties’.

//to give eye-wateringly large sums of public money to private firms, for public work and then to walk away and take no more interest is not the way to proceed.//

Given that it isn’t feasible to take absolutely everything that is outsourced to the private sector into government control, what is the way to proceed?
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Naomi....less of the "its been explained to you" if you don't mind....I am not a child.

The world and his wife knew that Carillion was in difficulty. They produced 3 consecutive profits warning and it does indeed indicate that the business was in serious difficulty.

The Government, in hock to Carillion, up to its neck, should have made a lot more effort in trying to find out what the situation was. And the pensions regulator had ample evidence that the pension funds were in dire difficulties, as the annual statements of account would have shown. But still did nothing.

But evidence is now growing to indicate that despite these growing financial problems, our Government still thought it was OK to award them 3 more public contracts, pouring more money after bad.

That and other questions need to be addressed.

You seem to show no appreciation as to the huge impact of Carillions collapse.
Mikey, //if you don't mind....I am not a child. //

Well if you know what you're saying isn't right, why carry on saying it? If people feel the need to remind you that you've been told you only have yourself to blame for that repetition.
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Naomi...despite your constant crowing, you are not always right, and on this you are wrong.

But I'm a bit puzzled here. Carillion went bust as few Companies have done in recent years, and the consequences are devastating for all the sub-contractors, workers, and pensioners alike. The Government is now left with the unenviable task of trying to pick up the pieces, with yet more public money.

Now.... if this had happened under a Labour Government, you would be spitting feathers by now.

But as its happening under a Tory regime, you seem strangely unwilling to express any sympathy for all involved, refuse to accept that the Government is at fault at all, and instead, shove your head in the sand.

Just why is this I wonder ?
//if this had happened under a Labour Government, you would be spitting feathers by now. //

Pure supposition. Labour handed out many of the contracts that just continued I dont blame them any more than I blame the Tories because I understand how contracts work.

//with yet more public money.//

I am struggling to understand why you keep saying this. The monies paid have been for services rendered, if they are eye watering then under the Civil service they would have been off the planet. Yes, there will be a blip and some cost to redo some of the contracts but most sub contractors will continue, pensioners and children will be fed. Try to get a grip on reality and stop exaggerating the problem with unsubstantiated claims.


The purpose of outsourcing is to give opportunities for patronage. It is not a cost-saving measure or an efficiency-based one.
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Kromo....you appear to understand the situation perfectly...well deserved BA !

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