Union responds to Audit Office report

Friday, 23 November 2007 12:00 AM

The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) were shocked by the findings of today's (23 Nov) National Audit Office (NAO) report into the privatisation of QinetiQ.

The union stated that the NAO report confirmed that the main beneficiaries of the privatisation had been a small group of senior managers some of whom saw the return on their investment increase by nearly 20,000 per cent on floatation. Chief Executive Sir John Chisholm saw his personal investment of £0.13 million increase on floatation to
£26 millions.

The other major beneficiary had been the Carlyle Group which had seen the rate of return on its investment increase by 112 per cent.

The union accused the government of selling off a valuable and strategically important public asset that had served to line the pockets of senior managers and private corporations.

The union was further angered as it emerged that the senior managers who benefited from the astronomical returns through the privatisation were the people who sold the idea of privatisation to the department in the first place.

Commenting, Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary, said: "This report lays bare the obscene nature of this privatisation. It is scandalous that a small number of senior managers and private companies should be making so much money out of an organisation that was built by public servants with public money. It is unacceptable that returns of 20,000 per cent can be made at the expense of the taxpayer."

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