According to documents seen by Sky News, some consulting executives who run the government testing and trace systems are paid £7,360 a day, worth more than 1.7 million people a year in taxpayer money.
The executives who received this salary are part of the Boston Consulting Group, with the UK government giving away £10 million for 40 BCG staff to tackle the testing and tracing system between April and August.
The government employed consultants for four months, but BCG charged daily fees rather than set fees for medium-term contracts. The company added that the charges charged are standard day fees for public sector jobs, below what charges private sector clients.
Even though BCG says it offers the Health and Social Care sector at a 10-15% discount, the annual salary is equivalent to an annual salary of over £1.7 million (including weekends and 28 days of unpaid holidays).
The development follows several questions raised about back taxpayers banging in this high-cost, seemingly error-filled system. It’s not just infuriating and infuriating, it’s also incredibly lined up in the pockets of overpaid consultants who use the cost of Excel data logging software under £100.
Simply scandal. With our money. The government has always been a cavalier with our money, especially when it comes to consultants in health. But this has to be something like a record. Especially for non-functioning test systems. https://t.co/pjymarabbb
– Andrew Neil (@afneil) October 14, 2020
Also, in response to the cost of suspicious testing and tracing systems, Labor MP, Toby Perkins spoke at the Commons Wednesday afternoon.
“Sometimes you get a story that appears to show a much broader point in itself.”
“And today, in a scoop revealed by Sky News’ Ed Conway, the government is paying £7,360 a day to the management consultants of the Boston Consulting Group, who are responsible for testing and traces, at daily fees.”
“It’s equivalent to a £1.5 million salary to an individual as a daily fee to preside over this shambolic sight that has disappointed my constituency and many others.”
Perkins called for “dedicated civil servants” to be brought in to run the testing and tracing system at a low cost.
“I don’t think that dedicated civil servants are paid £7,500 a day. You won’t find it for £1.5 million, but what you’re looking for is basic abilities, their local knowledge and a desire to make sure the system works before implementation,” he said.
“And that’s what we need right now in our system.”
Referring to his career in the sales industry, he added:
“I hope at some point in my life I was able to come across clients with as much money as government.
The bottom line is that you are currently paying the odds for the software. This does not actually perform particularly sophisticated tasks by modern standards while being deployed at large scale.
Not only did other countries manage it, they should stop describing it as “NHS testing and tracing apps.” Neither BCG nor Deloitte consultants work for the NHS, and linking efforts to the services provided by the NHS is a major loss.
