Were we witnessing a tragedy or a comedy?
The Chief Executive of the chaotic Passport Agency was explaining that there was no backlog of passport applications.
Members of the Home Affairs Select Committee had seen pictures of rooms overflowing with applications, stacked on tables and chairs. ‘That’s a backlog' we patiently explained. ‘No, it’s work in progress’ the man who gets a bigger salary than the Home Secretary answered. ‘ But, if it looks like a backlog, smells like a backlog and lies inert and motionless like a backlog, it is a backlog’, we protested. ‘No, no, it’s not a backlog’ Chief Executive Paul Pugh fantasized. Who remembers the 'Dead Parrott' that the salesman insisted was 'in a very deep sleep?'
This was in the middle of the cascading chaos of the passport crisis last summerwhen Mr. Pugh was managing the agency by panic. Hundreds of staff were then working seven days a week for months: emergency staff were being press-ganged in from the Border Agency. To rub salt in the wound bonuses of three quarters of a £million were distributed to top staff. The Government blithely continues on their journey of self-delusion into a vortex of INEPTOCRACY.
All MPs had constituents worried sick about their delayed passports. Promises were given to them by the call centre that phonecalls would be returned or the passporst would be sent. Rarely were promises honoured. Desperate to avoid cancelled holidays many of my constituents travelled to Liverpool to get the service that was until 2012 available in my constituency of Newport West. Many passports arrived at the very last moment. Often the day before the journey and, in at least one local case, on the morning of the day, that the family's plane was due to leave in the afternoon. Today the Home Affairs Committee hit back. With Newport in mind the following is a main recommendation:
“Based on the figures for overtime, it is clear that the use of overtime to deal with peaks in demand has proved unsustainable this year. This again raises the question of whether HMPO have the right number of staff, and the rights mix to deal with peaks in demand. We recommend that future additional jobs should be located, where possible, in areas that suffered from previous job losses in the Passport Office.''
The chaos of this year has resulted in huge additional costs for overtime and compensation to those who have had to cancel holidays. The total additional cost in overtime only is likely to be £5m for this year. Compensation costs have not been calculated but could be twice that figure.
To avoid future chaos increased staff will be required. They should be located in places such as Newport that suffered grievously from job losses.
Chair of the Committee Keith Vaz says:
“There has been a complete management failure at the highest levels of the organisation. Despite making a surplus of £124 million over the past 2 years, making record overtime payments and giving its chief executive a salary larger than the Home Secretary's it is scandalous that bonuses of £674,000 have been awarded during this period. The management of this organisation would be unlikely to survive to the final round of " The Apprentice". The HMPO should lose its agency status and be brought back under direct ministerial control following this appalling series of failures.
They have delivered a shamefully poor service to the estimated 5.6 million British citizens living abroad”
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