I remember thinking, during the the IOT office simulator phase back in the Cold War, just how
efficient the Pers/Admin system was. One guy checks a book, looks at a couple of files, maybe phones a mate or has a quick word with his Boss or Flt Sgt, makes a decision and writes a chitty. Things happened. That was when everything was in house.
The current dog's breakfast is vastly less efficient and more expensive (I've recently watched an Army Officer on the phone for 3 hours trying to get reimbursed for a Duty hotel stay in Poland - without success), it's just that it's now on someone else's budget. Ultimately however, it's all on the taxpayer's budget.
The Reserve system is all of the aggro and almost none of the benefits - no wonder nobody wants to join it.
The MoD insists it is still on track
Well, that's a straight lie.
However, recruitment of new regular soldiers was behind schedule in 2013-14. The Army recruited 6,366 regular soldiers against a target of 9,715 (a shortfall of 34 per cent).
1,975 reserve soldiers recruited by Capita in 2013-14 against a December*2012 Army Demand Plan requirement of 6,000
Here's the full NAO report
http://www.nao.org.uk/report/army-2020-2/
The MOD decision to reduce the size of the regular Army and increase the number of trained Army reserves was taken without appropriate testing of feasibility or evaluation of risk.
That's the simple headline; by the Government itself.
How can the MoD
claim it's on track? Easy - there's no track!
The Army has not publicly detailed what aspects of the transition to Army 2020 it needs to achieve by when for it to operate effectively. This makes it difficult to measure progress towards full implementation. The Army has also not set clear trigger points for enacting any contingency plans.
If an Officer Cadet did this in training, s/he'd be failed.