I believe that Liberata was acquired last year by a Japanese company. Goodness knows what sort of salary is given to Charlie Bruin, the Liberata CEO. For what it's worth, Liberata has had honourable mentions in Private Eye although not as many as other companies offering services to local authorities such as Crapita,Serco and Capgemini.There are many good reasons why local government services should not be privatised. These reasons include:1] The quality of service declines. Private companies are legally obliged to reward their shareholders, so profit is the priority. They have commercially confidential contracts, so they don't share information with others. This makes it harder for them to work in partnership to make services better. For example profit-making care homes and domiciliary care services are less likely to meet minimum regulatory standards on service quality.2] Private companies are not democratically accountable to the people of Hounslow. There is a lack of transparency.3] Costs go up. There is remarkably little evidence for savings from privatisation. Value for money declines because private companies must make a profit for their shareholders and they also pay their top executives large sums of money.4] Staff are undermined. Privatisation makes life harder for those working in local authorities and it generally has negative effects on employment and working conditions. Qualified staff are often replaced with casual workers, who are paid less and have worse conditions.5] It is very difficult to reverse. We all lose the pool of knowledge, skills and experience that public sector workers have acquired over many years. We also lose integration both within and across different public services. Hounslow's contract with Liberata is for 7 years, with the option of extending it for an additional 3 years.6] Taxation. The ownership of all companies providing public services under contract to local authorities, including those with offshore or trust ownership, should be available on the public record. At the same time a taxation test should require private companies in receipt of public services contracts to demonstrate that they are domiciled in the UK and subject to UK taxation law.So why do we continue along this apparently inexorable path?
Jim Storrar ● 3077d