Some very good points from Enigma
Enigma makes some very good points about the way the RAF conducts its business with civilian contractors and this is NOT confined to the VGS contract and is IMO due in part to military culture.
The general culture in the RAF is that military discipline requires people to put up with what the RAF provides and get on with the job in the best way they can, unfortunately some civilian contractors use this culture to provide service that is not up to the mark knowing full well that with at best the inertia of the RAF/MoD system they are unlikely to be forced to improve the service level beyond anything other than the minimum they can get away with and well short of what in civilian business would be excepatable.
Add the fact that the the contracts are usually awarded on price and so they cut the cost level to the bone. The result of this is the staff are paid very badly, in the past these contractors used a lot of ex-RAF staff who had a service pension to do the work and the tax payer got a good deal from workers who conducted themselfs with a service ethos for low pay........ All subsidised by a hard earned military pension.
The lack of business experience in the RAF was not a problem while the ex-RAF staff kept up the standards but with the increased use of civilian contractors and the falling number of ex-RAF workers to keep up standards the problem has come home to roost.
The civilians who now work for the contractors are vastly under paid so the contractors can only attract the people who can't get a Job with a private sector company........... Because if they could they would be gone in a heartbeat !
The whole thing is a toxic mix, money grabbing companies underpaying lacklustre staff supervised by RAF officers who's service ethic and lack of business practices results in poor oversight and a culture of poor service delivery within the contracting company.
If one did try to blow the whistle on these companies their first reaction would be to get the lawyers involved and dig up all sorts of accusations to rubbish the RAF officer who did so, none of this would stand up in court but is likely to tarnish a career and at best slow promotion.
If a contract is up for renewal and the incumbent contractor has its past failings pointed out resulting in the loss of the contract it is very likely that they will get the lawyers in to claim that the bidding process was unfair due to past "problems" clouding the contract renewal.
The MoD contracts department is not stupid but being confined by the fairness rules results in it being particularly difficult to remove a contractor for just poor service and so has to go about things very carefully in order to not get tangled up to in long leagal actions.