{"id":11912,"date":"2017-03-28T17:19:49","date_gmt":"2017-03-28T16:19:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=11912"},"modified":"2017-03-28T17:19:49","modified_gmt":"2017-03-28T16:19:49","slug":"gross-government-incompetence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=11912","title":{"rendered":"Gross government incompetence"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Taxpayers and workers will pay the price for gross government incompetence, after the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) announced on Monday (March 27) it would axe a multi-billion pound contract awarded to a private company to undertake nuclear clean-up work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After the high court ruled that the NDA botched the way it awarded the contract in 2014 to international consortium Cavendish Fluor Partnership (CFP), the government has now been forced to pay out \u00c2\u0141100m to settle the case with the two other companies who bid for the contract but failed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The high court ruled last year<\/a> that the government had used favouritism to award the private sector contract to CFP to decommission the 12 Magnox nuclear power sites, located in Berkeley, Gloucestershire; Bradwell, Essex; and Hinkley Point A in Somerset. The judge said the NDA failed to treat bidders equally and \u00e2\u20ac\u015bmanipulated\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 rules to allow CFP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s participation in the process.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite at the time called on the government to launch an inquiry into how the NDA manages contracts \u00e2\u20ac\u201c an inquiry that business secretary Greg Clark confirmed yesterday (March 27) would happen.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A \u00e2\u20ac\u0098defective procurement\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis was a defective procurement, with significant financial consequences, and I am determined that the reasons for it should be exposed and understood; that those responsible should properly be held to account; and that it should never happen again,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Clarke said in a written statement.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The NDA confirmed that the CFP contract will end in 2019 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c nearly ten years before it was supposed to end in 2028. This premature ending of the contract will mean that the NDA will be faced with the daunting \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and expensive \u00e2\u20ac\u201c task of restarting the tendering process in two years\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 time, costs of which will again by borne by the taxpayer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite has criticised the bidding process from the beginning and believes that the latest news is yet more evidence that backs the argument for bringing nuclear decommissioning fully back under public control.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe whole contract process has been deeply flawed from the very start,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Unite national officer Kevin Coyne said in response to today\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s news.\u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis was highlighted by the High Court case which ruled that the NDA had failed to treat all bidders the same when it awarded the 2014 contract to clean up the Magnox reactors.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs a result, failed bidders EnergySolutions and Bechtel now stand to be awarded almost \u00c2\u0141100 million in compensation \u00e2\u20ac\u201c a bill that the long-suffering taxpayer will have to pick up.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Inherently flawed\u00e2\u20ac\u2122<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Nuclear power expert Dr Paul Dorfman, from University College London’s Energy Institute, told the Daily Telegraph<\/em><\/a> that the entire contract award process is inherently flawed because of the nature of the work.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“They were set up to fail and have failed because the understanding of costs and complexity to nuclear decommissioning is changing all the time,” he said. “Magnox reactors were thrown up in a rush to give electricity too cheap to meter and create plutonium and there was no thought of how they would be decommissioned.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

“Each Magnox reactor is bespoke so decommissioning each one is different with its own complexities and challenges. The more we learn about dealing with the ‘back end’ of nuclear power, the more we see how complex and costly it is.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Indeed, CFP has over the years revised up its cost estimates \u00e2\u20ac\u201c last August it was reported<\/a> the consortium told the NDA that their original estimate had increased by 18 percent to more than \u00c2\u014110bn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This, Coyne told UNITElive<\/a>, is why private companies involved in nuclear clean-up can be so problematic.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bOur biggest concern about all these private companies is that when they first estimate costs, they often discover something or the other at a later stage that they hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accounted for \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and so they subsequently charge more,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWith a public contract, on the other hand, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re paying the workers, as it were, and you do whatever there is to do,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Coyne added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much more cost-effective.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pensions <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Coyne added this week that the other big losers after Monday\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s news will be the workforce which, he says, faces a reduction in their pension entitlements.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite is currently consulting its 3,000 NDA members on a new pension package which will \u00e2\u20ac\u0098save\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 the Treasury \u00c2\u0141320m \u00e2\u20ac\u201c ironically, the compensation payments of nearly \u00c2\u0141100m will eat up nearly a third of that sum.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe workers will have reduced pension entitlements and other benefits because of this financial mess. The government, through its 2016 Enterprise Act, forced through legislation designed to cut the terms and conditions of Magnox employees, including exit payments and changes in their pensions.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Changes to pensions come after CFP announced in 2015 plans to cut 1,600 jobs<\/a>. While many job losses had already been planned as the consortium took over the contract, the vast majority came as a shock.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Coyne said on Monday that Unite welcomes \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthe announcement that business secretary Greg Clark will hold an independent inquiry into the deeply flawed contracting out culture which we called for last summer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHowever, it is clear that the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098clean up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contract should be taken back into public control where it should have been in the first place.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Taxpayers and workers will pay the price for gross government incompetence, after the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) announced on Monday (March 27) it would axe a multi-billion pound contract awarded to a private company to undertake nuclear clean-up work.     After the high court ruled that the NDA botched the way it awarded the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[474,127,252],"wps_subtitle":"Inquiry into nuclear \u00e2\u20ac\u0098clean up\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 contract welcomed","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11912"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11912"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11912\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11913,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11912\/revisions\/11913"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}