OTHER ISSUE 5 ARTICLES:

THE BIG BOYS WANT MORE TOYS

LIVERPOOL HOUSING SCANDAL

FIRST THEY CAME FOR THE...

POLICE SPENDING OUT OF CONTROL

LOCAL ROUND UP

GLOBAL ROUND UP

CONSULTANTS STEAL £250 MILLION OF OUR MONEY

Another European money scandal has revealed that accountancy firms and management consultants are making off with £250 million from our Objective 1 money. According to a report in the Daily Post, around 12.5% of the total £2billion round 2 of Objective 1 cash is, surprise surprise, not being invested in local jobs and services, but is lining the pockets of business consultants. The multi-national giants KPMG, Pricewaterhousecooopers and Deloite and Touche are the biggest fat cats to cream off our money. Previous reports in People Not Profit (issues 2 and 4) point out that parasites (sorry, professionals) are collecting fees and fat cat salaries on an unprecedented scale. This £250 million is money that will be spent on 'business advice' alone and doesn't even include the huge amount of fees charged by other groups of professionals, architects, surveyors and lawyers.
The Objective 1 experiment might have been a big success story for big business, but it has failed us miserably. Merseyside's average GDP (Gross Domestic Product), compared with the rest of the country, is lower than it was before Objective 1 money came to the area. A whopping 40% of Objective One money has been spent on training people for employment in jobs that don't exist. Merseyside's unemployment is still double the national average. This cash has been pouring into the city over the last 20 years, yet most of us who have been living here during that period have experienced absolutley no benefit from it. Its time we put a stop to it - and started demanding that we have a say in the money, and not just councillors and Objective one partnerships, who'll continue handing it out to their mates.