OnPoint: Some of My Best Friends are Consultants
48 Responses
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
if it’s a Select Committee annual financial review, then the answer is us voters.
I was thinking more the Terrace Troika of Treasury, the State Services Commission, and the DPMC.
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3410,
Oh, BTW... Thanks, Keith. Your efforts are appreciated.
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nzlemming, in reply to
I was thinking more the Terrace Troika of Treasury, the State Services Commission, and the DPMC.
Which are in the process of being quietly munged into one entity as we type. Don't look for leadership or oversight there.
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Thanks!
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Sacha, in reply to
oh, there will be 'leadership' in the sense of faithfully carrying out the executive's wishes.
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The Chief Ombudsman has just lobbed a political grenade into the asset sales debate. Could this be to asset sales what the High Court has been to the Crafarms deal?
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
Unlikely. The current government are in no hurry to empower the Ombudsmen, as witnessed by their lack of urgency on rectifying the Office's dire funding situation.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
The Chief Ombudsman's comments are also unlikely to encourage National to make the additional funding a priority. Public servants should know their place, and if they get lippy, well, there are ways of dealing with "independent" bodies.
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Pete Sime, in reply to
On the other hand, the Ombudsman’s opinion would be quite persuasive if someone wanted to seek a judicial review over a decision not to release that information.
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Sacha, in reply to
there are ways of dealing with "independent" bodies
lots of construction activity in Christchurch... #concrete
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Ombudsmen's decisions can be seriously slowed down as demonstrated by this one on the government seeking to thwart OIA requests for lists of Briefings to Incoming Ministers - over 3 years ago (141KB PDF) via Idiot/Savant.
Like many things, their ultimate effect relies on the opposition functioning properly. With a thin majority and internal bickering, that pressure can easily bring down a government. We don't need to suffer another 3 years, despite what bumblers like Mallard and Pagani might believe.
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
You just need to look at the sort of projects coming out on the GETS website.
As I pointed out a couple of weeks back
Can anybody give me any assurance that this is not a list of jonkey’s previous Employers/Mates?
It all fits a little too neatly for my liking.It is not just a case of ex public employees returning as consultants it is the number of “Usual Suspects” rolling up with their hands out that pisses me off. Not to mention the numbers of ex MPs jumping on the gravy train but then what do we expect from a National Government.
Inflated “Mates Rates” for your mates. -
Will we be able to OIA such info after an organisation is partially privatised?
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
Like many things, their ultimate effect relies on the opposition functioning properly. With a thin majority and internal bickering, that pressure can easily bring down a government.
Or a good dose of leaks, à la MFAT. Or even HB Gary Federal.
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nzlemming, in reply to
Will we be able to OIA such info after an organisation is partially privatised?
It's a good question. See DeepRed's link above, where the Ombudsman seems to think so, but nothing is certain with this government.
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Despite not having 30% of the data, they considered it proof that the Capping regime wasn’t affecting consulting expenditure. Having declared that it was okay for that one year, they stopped measuring the the regime against this data, even though it was still being compiled by Treasury.
That's just shoddy, lazy and self serving and it's not criminal heh!
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Sacha, in reply to
the Ombudsman seems to think so
she *wants* so.
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Matthew Poole, in reply to
the Ombudsman seems to think so, but nothing is certain with this government.
No, she's quite sure it won't be so based on National's utterances thus far. She wants it to be so, but the current plan espoused by National is to become majority shareholder of something that strongly resembles a fully private company: no Treaty obligations, no pesky Ombudsmen or Official Information Act, etc
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nzlemming, in reply to
Ah, my bad. Thanks, Matthew and Sacha
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Not sure how this fist this tread but…
Court overturns conviction for theft of Goldman source codeThe court suggested it might have reached a different conclusion if Aleynikov had smuggled the source code out of the building on a CD or thumb drive. But because he uploaded the source code via the Internet, it could not be described as “goods, wares,” or “merchandise."
And…
Goldman’s HFT system was strictly for the firm’s internal use. It had not sold or licensed it to anyone else, nor did it intend to do so. According to the Second Circuit, this meant that the HFT system was not “produced for” or “placed in” interstate commerce. And so stealing its source code wasn’t a crime under the EEA.
So, the programme that collapsed the Global Financial System is Open Source now?.
OH, the Fucking Irony...
OTFI? -
Sacha, in reply to
your optimism was touching
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David Chittenden, in reply to
You just need to look at the sort of projects coming out on the GETS website.
I understand that only tenders at or above $100,000 need to go through the GETS system, so there will be a huge amount of consulting going on that doesn't make it on to GETS. As it has been pointed out, GETS is a slow and painful process so it is often easier to break large potential contracts up into chunks of less than $100,000. After one contract is completed, the next stage still has to go out for tender (just not on GETS). So it can lead to a situation where government agencies will probably go with those that won the previous tender (as it is seen as a continuation of the same work) and annoy other bidders with wasted time developing their proposals.
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Tim Michie, in reply to
Repeated again in the last third of Court Report. Ombudsman Beverley Wakem is making this point whenever possible it seems.
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