“What do you believe is 'damaging' and what would an English court see as 'damaging'?”
I’ll tell you what IS damaging – to the well-being of our Servicemen and their equipment…… That very senior staff, in fact the most senior, in MoD(PE), DPA, DLO and the MoD in general have, over a period of many years, condoned;
• Mandated airworthiness regulations being willfully ignored
• The willful waste of public funds
I have signed the OSA and am well aware of my responsibilities. However, having pointed the above out to the correct authorities in the correct manner, I have received very polite correspondence from, among others, Ministers of State for the Armed Forces, saying that neither constitutes “wrongdoing”. As has my MP. I’ve even replied making it very clear what they’ve been advised to sign, inviting a change of mind; merely to be told they have “nothing further to add”.
I do not believe my discussing this is ”damaging”. Quite the opposite, it is damaging to both the MoD and the Defence budget, NOT to talk about it. I do not know for sure if what I discuss is widespread, or I just happen to have stumbled across isolated cases (with monotonous regularity over a 20+ year period). I DO know, however, that I have been very publicly instructed to knowingly ignore airworthiness issues and waste of public funds by senior staffs who clearly did not fear censure and were ALWAYS supported by their bosses. My own view is that, if it were isolated, the likes of CDP would have simply said “Thanks for this, but investigation shows it’s a one-off, and won’t happen again”. But they couldn’t, not with the damning evidence of various audits and the Defence Select Committee which is available; not through being obtained or leaked unofficially, but through Hansard, Freedom of Information, the www and their own correspondence to me.
Put it this way. I agree with the Prime Minister that the MoD is wasteful. And with official reports, like the QQ one discussed here, that airworthiness issues are being ignored. My point is – this is not the first time this has been aired. Having been told what they are doing wrong the MoD, despite having a Duty of Care and a responsibility to Parliament for the proper spend of public funds, continues to avoid these obligations. Not only that, they commit resources to protecting those who commit this fraud. Over to you Mr Brown.