[LINK] NT Govt outsourcing policy a shambles

[Chirgwin, Richard]

A remark:
Okay, businesspeople can be expected to make the self-serving statement that
they are the only ones who can make any decision about anything; that's one
of the myths they peddle to try and get rid of government oversight of their
activities.

But it's one of >those< statements: anyone can make it at anytime, and
nobody challenges it.

Surely in an economy beset by OneTel, HIH, Enron, WorldCon and a squillion
smaller, petty ripoffs, we could dispense with the mythology of the
all-knowing, all-powerful 'business decision maker'?

Richard 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jan Whitaker
To: Bernard Robertson-Dunn
Cc: Link
Sent: 9/7/02 7:01 AM
Subject: Re: [LINK] NT Govt outsourcing policy a shambles

At 03:57 PM 6/09/02 +1000, Bernard Robertson-Dunn wrote:
>"The government is full of people who aren't businesspeople in their
own
>right, but who are making business decisions," said Hodges.

This is also a weird comment.  It's not just a lack of business skills
or 
IT skills.  It's a problem of a lack of an ability to put the two
together 
from a public good position and stand one's ground against unscrupulous 
marketing staff of the vendors.  It's an inability to read and trust 
commissioned expert reports of people who are disinterested in the
agendas 
of those who stand to benefit from the decision.

I always wonder why there is this thought that Ministers are the ones
who 
know any of this stuff any way. [Do we really think David Kemp knows any

thing about the environment in his own right?]  I was pleased to see in
the 
report that the department staff are also being changed.  My guess is
that 
the political agendas and department staff ambitions are what gets 
governments into these terrible positions.  I'm not knocking all public 
servants or political minders.  Some of my best friends fit in those 
categories.  But you gotta admit, there are holes in the process
somewhere 
to have so many examples of this sort out there.

Jan


JLWhitaker Associates
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit@primenet.com  --  http://www.primenet.com/~jwhit/whitentr.htm


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