Welsh Work Programme provider accused of 'systemic fraud'

After this weekend’s revelations in the Guardian that job seekers on the UK Government’s Work Programme were bussed in to steward the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations it’s worth reminding ourselves that one of the two work programme providers in Wales, Working Links was accused of 'systemic fraud' a few weeks back by a former employee.

Working Links (WL) in a UK company that won Work Programme contacts in Scotland, Wales and the South West and the allegations were made about several areas and contracts issued by the previous Labour Government  in a private session to the Public Accounts Committee in the House of Commons by a former Head of Internal audit who also worked for the notorious A4E. 

From the Western Mail ‘In evidence given to the House of Commons’ public accounts committee earlier this week, the firm’s former head of internal audit Eddie Hutchinson claimed that “fraud and irregularity became so extensive and disruptive to the work of the internal audit team... that by May 2008 we were both suffering from exhaustion and stress due to the immense physical demands being placed on us as we chased such incidents at many locations across England, Scotland and Wales”.

Since being set up in 2000, WL – the biggest provider in Wales of welfare-to-work services through its contract with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – says it has helped more than 30,000 people in Wales gain skills and work.

In his evidence, Mr Hutchinson stated: “Things got so bad that by spring 2008 it reached the farcical situation over a sustained period of time in which we would arrange to carry out work in the Midlands, then be required to hastily divert to Brighton (including flights being booked), only to then be instructed by my line manager to urgently change our plans to Wales, followed quickly by new priorities for coverage in other areas including London and Glasgow.”

In June 2008 Mr Hutchinson wrote a briefing note for the company’s executive team which quantified the losses from 15 separate frauds and irregularities over the previous 15 months at around £250,000.

He told MPs: “The common theme in relation to the DWP contracts was that all of these frauds involved the falsification of job outcome evidence to illegally claim monies from the DWP, together with the false claiming of bonus payments by staff through the company’s incentive bonus system.'

The full article is here, so what effect will this have on Working Links in Wales and should our AM’s and MP be more interested and concerned as to what the Work Programme in Wales is achieving especially as they are always banging on about job creation and getting more people into work but not this type of work surely?

Left Foot Forward also has a good analysis of five reasons why the Work Programme is the wrong option when jobs are scarce.

'What crisis? Let's have a £1.3-billion bash'

The title is a headline in the Indian newspaper The Hindu which is scathing about the cost, lack of alternative voices and the UK's media coverage of the Queen's Jubilee, particularly the BBC’s wall to wall coverage and the build up to this weekend's celebrations.

Here’s a taster ‘Forget the party-pooping republicans and sulking businessmen who complained about the loss of revenue and productivity as a result of the longest holiday weekend in living memory to mark the Queen's diamond jubilee. At 86, even the Queen, well-preserved and sprightly though she is, must have been exhausted after four days of non-stop excursion dashing from one “amazing” event to another with a permanent grin on her face.

When it comes to the royal family, particularly the Queen, Britons have form on fawning, and nobody fawns better than the media. And here I am not talking about the usual suspects, The Telegraph, The Times, the Daily Mail or the Sky. The BBC, allegedly packed with loony republicans, out-fawned them all prompting The Times writer Philip Collins to comment: “I thought the BBC was meant to be a nest of Lefties. Where are they all?”

A three-part BBC documentary on the Queen's 60-year reign, screened in the run-up to the jubilee, was widely criticised for not presenting a single dissenting voice. The campaign group, Republic, accused it of acting like the Palace's “cheerleader-in-chief”.

“For the past 18 months, our national broadcaster has sought to promote the institution and its incumbent family and to join in the royal celebrations. Rather than act as an impartial commentator, the BBC has become cheerleader-in-chief for an institution that is controversial and contested,” it said.

In one of the many cringing moments, a star BBC presenter looked on with awe and excitement as an executive of a supermarket chain revealed the “wonderful” contents of a Jubilee picnic hamper created by celebrity chef Heston Blumenthal and royal chef Mark Flanagan. The camera rolled on as the man waxed eloquent about “chilled British country garden soup”; “tea-smoked Scottish salmon”, and specially spiced-up “Diamond Jubilee chicken”!

The royalists were still not impressed and took to social networking sites to complain that the Beebs did not always get the tone “right” — on one occasion referring to the Queen as “HRH” rather than “Her Majesty”.

“Low grade, celebrity driven drivel. How did Beeb get it so wrong?” asked angry Tory MP, Rob Wilson'.

And it’s not just the UK media, BBC Wales and ITV Wales have had little else in their news bulletin’s for 4 days, as well as the Western Mail and Daily Post posting extensive coverage of street parties and official events in Wales.

I’m not a republican, but i’ve not been interested in the Queen’s Jubilee like a lot of my friends, colleagues and family, but yet again I find myself asking why any alternative view on the Queen's Jubilee, like the London Olympics is only to be found in foreign newspapers.