UK Ministry of Defense wastes £270m rehiring sacked staff

The Commons public accounts committee said the MoD spent a staggering £270?million last year on outside consultancy while the bill for 2007 was only £6?million.

“The MoD has gone ahead with cuts to its military and civilian workforce without a proper understanding of what skills it will need in the future,” committee chairman Margaret Hodge said.

The revelation is especially scandalous as the ministry is to cut the civilian workforce by 29,000 and military personnel by 25,000 to achieve the £4.1?billion cost cuts imposed by the government’s sweeping spending cuts.

“We are concerned that these cuts have been determined by the need to cut costs in the short term rather than by considering the MoD’s strategic objectives in the long term and the skills it will need to deliver them successfully,” Hodge said.

Meanwhile, shadow armed forces minister Kevan Jones echoed Hodge saying the government is to blame for the scandal.

“This is a damning condemnation of the Government’s reform program. The rushed defense review put savings before strategy with damaging consequences,” Jones said.

“Ministers’ decisions mean the MoD is losing key skills, morale is in freefall and taxpayers’ money is being wasted… this will end any assurance that ministers’ reform programme was well planned or successful,” Jones added.