I am a firm believer that MoD, in fact all Government departments, should be required to avoid waste, as far practically possible. Only from that baseline can their true financial requirements be established. In effect, each year MoD is given a huge “float” in their budget as it is not policy to avoid waste. They act like a restaurant and build wastage into their costings. Worse, this includes conscious waste.
I have long held the view that MoD’s budget is pretty generous were it not for this policy of condoning, in fact encouraging, waste. Recently, when asked to confirm (or otherwise) that this policy remained extant, both Minister for the Armed Forces (Andrew Robothan MP) and the Head of the Civil Service (Sir Robert Kerslake) stated, in writing, that it remains an offence in MoD to refuse to obey an order to knowingly waste money.
That is a huge elephant in the room.
On top of this, and with increasing frequency, along come minor hiccups like Nimrod MRA4, which poured well over £4Bn down the drain. The reason why it was cancelled was advised to the programme’s “management oversight” team during the programme initiation process in the mid-90s and was the subject of a damning report in 1998. Yet it took another 13 years. Why? I have always suspected MoD waits for those involved to retire before acknowledging such things. The evidence is pretty compelling.
Old-Duffer, I strongly agree with 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. No comment on 6, as I don’t know the details. As for BBMF, I’ve often wondered why the RN Historical Flight did not enjoy the same funded status. Having said that, I plead guilty to unofficially helping them out whenever I could.
Last edited by tucumseh; 8th Apr 2013 at 11:49.