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Ditch quangos, save cash, says haulier
• ,;--istopher
THE BOSS OF a leading haulier has called for Skills for Logistics (SfL) not to be reficensed since quangos (quasi-autonomous nongovernmental organisations) are seen as a drain on the financial resources of firms in a recession.
Andrew Palmer,group managing director of Suttons Group, tells CM that the amount spent by the government on quangos equates to the same amount of money raised in fuel duty.
He adds: don't have an axe to grind with SfL. but I don't believe it has anything to offer us. This is a bit like swearing in church, but the fact is that there are a lot of people who spend a lot of time on training. SfL is not going to create wealth. The government needs to stop taking cash away from businesses and using it on quangos." All 25 sector skills councils are undergoing a performance-based relicensing assessment by the National Audit Office on behalf of the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. SfL expects to complete the process by the end of August, having started on 7 April.
Mick Jackson, chief executive officer of SfL, retorts: "We have clearly failed to impress Suttons for some years now and that is a failure on our part" He adds: "We have spent time rebuilding the qualifications and training delivery infrastructure in this country. These efforts are now bearing fruit.
"We have formal agreements with six trade associations that represent around 20,000 of the employers such as Suttons across the UK, where we are working with them to develop focused and relevant qualifications.
"We also have agreements with trades unions and the Chartered Institute of Logistics andTransport, which pick up around 30,000 people who work for firms such as Suttons from a career-planning perspective.
"We have been active in bringing money into firms in the sector. And for the record, we are not a quango, we are a company limited by guarantee for the sector."
• See CM next week for an interview with Suttons Group \ Andrew Palmer.