Several of my non-profit clients are organizations that until recently have had contracts with the BC Government to deliver employment training services. In March this year, the government announced the creation of the “Employment Program of British Columbia” and requested proposals in 73 areas for proponents to offer this program.
My understanding is the Employment Program is an umbrella for a diverse range of employability training activities targeting different client groups. As the organizations and companies in the sector scrambled to respond to this RFP, it became clear that there was going to be a new industry structure with the successful proponents actually contracting out components of the Employment Program to other organizations with specialist expertise, where the population and needs of the clients warranted these specialist programs.
I realize I’m coming late to the party when it comes to commenting on this industry change, but I have been getting increasingly concerned about this government move. Seeing the list of successful proponents has crystallized my concern.
First of all, the “super-agency” structure that is getting created by this Employment Program is wasteful. Previously, the government has hired public service employees to contract with organizations who deliver programs to meet distinct market needs. The public service employees administer the contracts and follow up to see that there is accountability on how the dollars are being spent. Now, the government will still have those public sector employees on the payroll, but now they will be administering fewer but bigger contracts. The super-agencies will be ALSO hiring employees to administer contracts with organizations who deliver programs to meet distinct market needs. Yes, some of the super-agencies will do their own delivery but the nature of employment training is that there are always going to be needs for specialized training settings or structures, and it’s not efficient for the super-agencies to try to address all those needs under one roof. So the front-end organizations are still there, delivering their programs… and now there are super-agencies who track accountability etc… but the government STILL has to track accountability via the super-agencies. There’s another layer of oversight being added, with no extra money to spread around. With all due respect to the fine men and women (mostly women, really) who are working hard at all levels of this structure and who more than deserve their paycheques… this is grossly unproductive. Instead of spending money on training resources, the government has just created a new expensive layer of oversight in these super-agencies who will babysit the organizations who will do exactly what they used to do, but with smaller budgets.
There’s another element to this change which bothers me, and that’s the appearance of for-profit businesses acting as super-agencies. It bothers me because the mandate and sole purpose of a for-profit business is to make a profit and that means that every available tax dollar will no longer be going to help the citizens of our province who need employment training. In order for a for-profit business to want to engage in this industry, there has to be a reasonable expectation that some of our tax dollars will end up in corporate pockets. They might be noble pockets who are good at their jobs, but I don’t pay taxes so that a company whose parent is a Big-10 accounting firm can deliver shareholder returns.
(Edit: 2:21pm Nov 17 – I just want to clear something up – I was writing this on the mistaken belief that one of the successful proponents (GT Hiring Solutions) was a subsidiary of Grant Thornton, but upon further investigation I have found this to be untrue. It’s a subsidiary of a different for-profit consulting firm, Chemistry Consulting Group, owned by very respectable and worthy individuals with a past employment relationship with Grant Thornton. I don’t know the details behind the name GT Hiring Solutions).
This escapade demonstrates why the Liberal government’s modus operandi of privatizing services to citizens is fundamentally and critically flawed. They may believe they’re creating jobs and reducing the size of the public service, but they’re really just handing off responsibility for effectively serving the citizens and guests of this province to a group of corporate bodies whose first and only priority is profit.
Damnit, I’m even madder than I was before. So much for blogging as catharsis.
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Your tax dollars at work… in for-profit hands
Several of my non-profit clients are organizations that until recently have had contracts with the BC Government to deliver employment training services. In March this year, the government announced the creation of the “Employment Program of British Columbia” and requested proposals in 73 areas for proponents to offer this program.
My understanding is the Employment Program is an umbrella for a diverse range of employability training activities targeting different client groups. As the organizations and companies in the sector scrambled to respond to this RFP, it became clear that there was going to be a new industry structure with the successful proponents actually contracting out components of the Employment Program to other organizations with specialist expertise, where the population and needs of the clients warranted these specialist programs.
I realize I’m coming late to the party when it comes to commenting on this industry change, but I have been getting increasingly concerned about this government move. Seeing the list of successful proponents has crystallized my concern.
First of all, the “super-agency” structure that is getting created by this Employment Program is wasteful. Previously, the government has hired public service employees to contract with organizations who deliver programs to meet distinct market needs. The public service employees administer the contracts and follow up to see that there is accountability on how the dollars are being spent. Now, the government will still have those public sector employees on the payroll, but now they will be administering fewer but bigger contracts. The super-agencies will be ALSO hiring employees to administer contracts with organizations who deliver programs to meet distinct market needs. Yes, some of the super-agencies will do their own delivery but the nature of employment training is that there are always going to be needs for specialized training settings or structures, and it’s not efficient for the super-agencies to try to address all those needs under one roof. So the front-end organizations are still there, delivering their programs… and now there are super-agencies who track accountability etc… but the government STILL has to track accountability via the super-agencies. There’s another layer of oversight being added, with no extra money to spread around. With all due respect to the fine men and women (mostly women, really) who are working hard at all levels of this structure and who more than deserve their paycheques… this is grossly unproductive. Instead of spending money on training resources, the government has just created a new expensive layer of oversight in these super-agencies who will babysit the organizations who will do exactly what they used to do, but with smaller budgets.
There’s another element to this change which bothers me, and that’s the appearance of for-profit businesses acting as super-agencies. It bothers me because the mandate and sole purpose of a for-profit business is to make a profit and that means that every available tax dollar will no longer be going to help the citizens of our province who need employment training. In order for a for-profit business to want to engage in this industry, there has to be a reasonable expectation that some of our tax dollars will end up in corporate pockets. They might be noble pockets who are good at their jobs, but I don’t pay taxes so that a company
whose parent is a Big-10 accounting firmcan deliver shareholder returns.(Edit: 2:21pm Nov 17 – I just want to clear something up – I was writing this on the mistaken belief that one of the successful proponents (GT Hiring Solutions) was a subsidiary of Grant Thornton, but upon further investigation I have found this to be untrue. It’s a subsidiary of a different for-profit consulting firm, Chemistry Consulting Group, owned by very respectable and worthy individuals with a past employment relationship with Grant Thornton. I don’t know the details behind the name GT Hiring Solutions).
This escapade demonstrates why the Liberal government’s modus operandi of privatizing services to citizens is fundamentally and critically flawed. They may believe they’re creating jobs and reducing the size of the public service, but they’re really just handing off responsibility for effectively serving the citizens and guests of this province to a group of corporate bodies whose first
and onlypriority is profit.Damnit, I’m even madder than I was before. So much for blogging as catharsis.