Tuesday 20 October 2009

Quangos & Bureaucracy

Following on from my post yesterday - Just where and to whom does a quangos responsibility lie*' - for those not aware of the problems in dealing with the bureaucratic mind let us take as an example the Tenant Services Authority Regulatory Judgement (May 2009) for The Riverside Group (TRG).
 
Firstly, we will not enter the debate about the waste of public money in the efforts of the TSA carrying out a Regulatory Judgement, especially when this is already done by the Audit Commission; but hey, this is Bureaucratland and when did value for money ever concern those that inhabit it? If ever there was an example of reports written by bureaucrats for bureaucrats then TSA Regulatory Judgements and Audit Commission reports are prime candidates. One does not have to read very far into any of these reports to see the point I am making!

In these reports one finds much mention of 'cultures of improvement', 'Boards working well', Performance Indicators' etc and 'disability and gender equality action plans'. On page 6 of Riverside's Regulatory Judgement one can see that it has a lead director for equality and diversity, together with a 'continuous improvement group dedicated to this area'. Each office has an equalities representative and Riverside has set up staff groups for disabled and BME employees. Wowee!

Pity they don't seem yet to have got the hang of looking after their tenants! But never mind, they will shortly have the opportunity of trying to explain why in court - which is where I intend shortly to take them!


* For those who have already read that post  do take a look at the update added today.

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