In Private Eye # 1171 Dated 10th November
(Scan, cut and paste from page 29)
A consortium known as Metrix has emerged as favourite for at least one of the two defence training PFI contracts reckoned to be worth around£19bn. But who is behind the snappily-named outfit set to be handed access to much of Britain’s military technology and be relied upon to prepare the armed forces for operations for 15 years?
Providing the computer capability is – uh, oh! EDS, the company’s record of screwing up CSA, the Inland Revenue tax credits, and more recently the forces own personnel administration system seems to have recommended itself to MoD bosses
Other members include Qinetiq, 30% owned by US investment fund Carlyle, which acquired the shares some 5 years ago through the part privatisation of DERA; and Augusta Westlands, bought by Italian defence giant Finmeccanica a couple of years ago. Success for Metrix would represent an early success for Finmeccanica director Lord Bach, who as defence minister in the last parliament approved the Augusta acquisition.
And who could doubt the credentials of Raytheon? Among the blots are:
Conviction for illegally obtaining classified documents (1990)
Over charging on Government contracts (1994)
Compensation to a competitor for spying (1999)
$410m settlement with investors over false accounts (2004)
Private education company Nord Anglia secures a birth despite financial troubles and a questionable record of privatising schools in local authorities. In September last year it was forced to lay off 100 staff and flog its headquarters as it lost money on a chain of nurseries.
And no consortium would be complete without one of Britain’s finest outsourcers, in this case Serco – the firm that earlier this year admitted that its dismal performance on prisoner tagging only improved when it was threatened with swingeing penalties.
Metrix has the crucial cabinet-level of Welsh Secretary Peter Hain. The consortium will be based in the RAF’s St Athan site in Wales and use a £100m “super-hangar” that the MoD built just before the aircraft repairs it was designed for were moved out. Though extreamly unpopular with MoD staff, the move would therefore spare some blushes, even it means handing over training of the country’s armed forces to the most motley of crews