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DEFRA launches RPA investigation

Last post Fri, Feb 12 2010 5:07 by warrener. 17 replies.
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  • Wed, Sep 2 2009 10:18

    DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    DEFRA's announced it's about to begin a full-scale investigation of the RPA: http://www.fwi.co.uk/Articles/2009/09/02/117477/defra-launches-full-scale-investigation-of-the-rpa.html 

    Apparently it's going to look at all the workings of the agency, including the way it deals with Single Payments. DEFRA reckons it's going to be completed by next March, but seeing as it's going to be looking at farmers' complaints about the RPA I get the feeling it could take a bit longer...

    Midlands correspondent, Farmers Weekly
  • Wed, Sep 2 2009 11:12 In reply to

    • motley
    • Top 150 Contributor
      Male
    • Joined on Mon, Mar 30 2009
    • Suffolk

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    In what capacity can defra investiagte the rpa? Gadfly would be impressed with this, if investigation is required at least make it independent and transparent not a banana republic motion, even tom cruise would ask more challenging questions than these inside traders will.

    The thought strikes me: would turkeys vote for Christmas?

    Like so much of government, or more succinctly the servant's of government -  the ones that really rule us, they know what they want before they start.

    When we look at the things that defra are up to - (Not the man with a girl's name) - the mandarins that is to say. At present they seem to positioning themselves for change. It is a shame that we don't have a similar system to Italy where on the election of a new party there is, like a new football manager a clear out of backroom staff. Defra seem to smell a change of government and are carefully positioning themselves, like old mate Pontious Pilate did. 

    The best thing a new government can do is take the plaque off defra offices in Smith Square and see what political positioning and posture yields. A new office as labeled by a new minister who is prepared to concede power, will evolve. Just as when Blair wanted to get rid of Robin Cook at any cost and Bucket was prepared to forego a senior position, as leader of the house; a post that the red headed philanderer was prepared to let his ego accept. After conceding her role she was then able to create a travel agency with the regrettable attachment of agriculture to it. At Least they have hived off the traveling to Ed now.

    My money is on defra disbandment in 2010 and a new office being created as a sop to a grandee who likes expenses, maybe even duck houses. we can be assured that there will be no leadership in this country for farming in the palace of Westminster, we will have to do that ourselves.

     

    Farming is for us, all.
  • Wed, Sep 2 2009 13:25 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    RPA is fit for purpose.....its purpose has always been to give us farmers as little money as possible and make as many hoops for us to jump through as they feel like. Keeps people in jobs as "inspectors".

    C'est de la bombe baby boom!
    -Seine-Saint-Denis Style-
  • Wed, Sep 2 2009 14:54 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

     Defra investigating is almost as bad as the RPA investigating themselves. A couple of hands will be slapped and the RPA will promise ,with their fingers crossed behind their backs, that the problems will never happen again. Laughable

    Innovation in Excavation
  • Wed, Sep 2 2009 22:32 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    There is ony one outcome that will come from this, that the RPA is doing a fine job under difficult conditions and is perfectly fit for purpose. What other conclusion could a government investgating it's own department come to??? The RPA's sole purpose is to keep as much European money out of farmers hands as it can, whilst at the same time making more work for the NHS by pushing the collectinve rural blood pressure through the roof! This being the case, it excells at it's brief!
    "Dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, but pigs treat us as equals." (Sir Winston Churchill)
  • Thu, Sep 3 2009 12:06 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    Am I the only one who thinks DEFRA's going to use this review as an excuse to get rid of the RPA?

    I have a suspicion that rather than admit the RPA has been useless and a complete waste of tax payers' money, DEFRA will claim it's not going to be quite the right agency to deliver whatever is coming after 2013 (even if they don't know what's going to happen then anyway) and it'll be replaced with a differently-named agency, which in essence does the same thing. The RPA's PR is so bad that no amount of reviewing and 'streamlining' is going to improve its reputation.

    Midlands correspondent, Farmers Weekly
  • Thu, Sep 3 2009 13:03 In reply to

    • 2567892
    • Not Ranked
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    • Joined on Fri, Jul 20 2007
    • Herefordshire

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

     

    I think that's fair comment, but obviously the most cost effective measure is to get rid of DEFRA. At least the RPA does manage to distribute some money albeit late. What does DEFRA do that could be described as cost-effective or even value for money?
  • Thu, Feb 4 2010 21:51 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    YOU HAVE PREDICTED CORRECTLY

    THE DEFRA REPORT HAS MADE HEADS ROLL - BUT UNFAIRLY

     I WORK IN NEWCASTLE OFFICE AND TODAY WE WERE TOLD AT 2PM BY SENIOR MANAGERS THAT HALF THE WORKFORCE IS BEING LAID OFF COME END OF MARCH

    £20 MILLION CUT FROM BUDGET BY GOVERMENT AND DEFRA = JOB LOSSES A-K-A A NEED TO PERFORM WITH FEWER HEADCOUNT

     OUTRAGEOUS! WE WERE OUT PERFORMING MOST OF THE OTHER SITES YET OUR SITE IS SMALLER SO SPS ONCE AGAIN MOVES AND IS DILUTED AROUND THE COUNTRIES OFFICES

     INCOMPETENT STUPID EXPENSIVE SOFTWARE (ACCENTURE), EVER CHANGING RULES AND STUPID SYSTEM ERRORS HAVE COST US JOBS. EVEN MY MATES WITH PERMANENT JOBS ARE GOING TO BE HALFED IN NUMBERS.

    I DO NOT ENVY YOU FARMERS BUT PLEASE BEAR IN MIND WE HAVE OUR HANDS TIED AND OUR MOUTHS SHUT UP BY YES MEN LIVING A LIE!

     RED TAPE AND DOWNRIGHT LIES AND SUDDEN DECISIONS WHICH ARE NOT THOUGHT THROUGH HAVE YET AGAIN PUT A SPANNER IN THE WORKS. WHERE IS MY MOTIVATION WHEN I FINISH IN A MONTHS TIME AND HAVE WORKED AS HARD AS A PERMENENT MEMBER OF STAFF FOR NO LOYALTY AND IDIOTS IN DEFRA LONDON TO SIGN AWAY OUR JOBS ???

     

  • Fri, Feb 5 2010 9:05 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    I am really sorry to hear that. I know the RPA has come in for alot of grief from farmers over the years, but all always stress that it is not the individuals doing the work on the ground that are at fault.

    Content Editor for Farmers Weekly
  • Fri, Feb 5 2010 9:22 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    As an ex ADAS officier from many moons ago, when the Tory knives were out, l know what rparedundancies2010 means.

    The Civil service is a top down organisation, the upstairs spend their time avoiding trouble by blaming the front line, who pay the price for poor management.

    Working at the sharp end of the Civil Service is rather like milking, indue course a warm soft lump comes down from upon high.

  • Fri, Feb 5 2010 18:12 In reply to

    • anon34
    • Not Ranked
    • Joined on Fri, Oct 30 2009

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

     50 SPS jobs were also cut in Carlisle last month.

  • Fri, Feb 5 2010 19:58 In reply to

    • Peter Wells
    • Top 25 Contributor
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    • Joined on Sun, May 22 2005
    • Gloucestershire
    • Trusted Users

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    It is never nice to be in a redundancy situation. During my working life I have had to make many hundreds in the private sector redundant but, in every case, I have personally faced the person and explained to them the reasons for their losing their job.

    There are many reasons for redundancy in the private sector sometimes it is directly connected with a decline in income as represented by the sales figures and sometimes it is because of pressure on margins created by competitors making ground in ones market. At other times it is because technology has changed and a competitor has invested in it before you did.

    In the public sector, technological change obviousely applies but most redundancies in the public sector come about because politicians have not adequately thought through the costs of their actions on the taxpaying public.

    What is overlooked by the big wigs in either the private or public sector the the propensity of bureaucrats to multiply. Professor Northecote Parkinson developed a Law in the nineteen fifties that explained this propensity. The Law is called Parkinsons Law, and it thoroughly explains why bureaucrats multiply and the consequences of this multiplication.

    If anyone wants to pursue a discussion on Parkinsons Law I will be happy to start another thread.

    In the meantime my thoughts are with those people affected by these redundancies and I hope that those people are able to find suitable positions in the wealth creating or wealth preserving sectors of the economy. In that, I include front line teaching and nursing care.

     

  • Fri, Feb 5 2010 23:57 In reply to

    • sjk
    • Top 50 Contributor
      Male
    • Joined on Thu, Jul 26 2007
    • Kent, UK

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

     To be honest I don't think it'll take that long as another lot will be in before the years out and everything will change any way.

     rparedundancies2010 you are not alone my brother was made redundant last year due to bad management who kept their jobs and huge saleries and those that lost their jobs were the one who were trying to pick up the pieces. As a result a large number of those that weren't maked redundant quit because of what it had turned like. It was all highlighted when the management got top accountants in to do creative book keeping to make a small loss in to a small profit as it turned out what they found turned a small loss in to a huge loss.

    Sam

    Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies.
    Groucho Marx
  • Sat, Feb 6 2010 9:46 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    Peter Wells:
    If anyone wants to pursue a discussion on Parkinsons Law I will be happy to start another thread.

     

    l would be interested in that discussion Peter.

    l left college, classed as the most unlikely to join the civil service and did. But only l must add for a few years, one spent as a post grad student. 

  • Sat, Feb 6 2010 17:50 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    if  barking beckett had followed the scottish model of historic payments,the rpa would never have existed.

  • Wed, Feb 10 2010 23:58 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    YOU HAVE PREDICTED CORRECTLY

    THE DEFRA REPORT HAS MADE HEADS ROLL - BUT UNFAIRLY

     I WORK IN NEWCASTLE OFFICE AND TODAY WE WERE TOLD AT 2PM BY SENIOR MANAGERS THAT HALF THE WORKFORCE IS BEING LAID OFF COME END OF MARCH

    £20 MILLION CUT FROM BUDGET BY GOVERMENT AND DEFRA = JOB LOSSES A-K-A A NEED TO PERFORM WITH FEWER HEADCOUNT

     OUTRAGEOUS! WE WERE OUT PERFORMING MOST OF THE OTHER SITES YET OUR SITE IS SMALLER SO SPS ONCE AGAIN MOVES AND IS DILUTED AROUND THE COUNTRIES OFFICES

     INCOMPETENT STUPID EXPENSIVE SOFTWARE (ACCENTURE), EVER CHANGING RULES AND STUPID SYSTEM ERRORS HAVE COST US JOBS. EVEN MY MATES WITH PERMANENT JOBS ARE GOING TO BE HALFED IN NUMBERS.

    I DO NOT ENVY YOU FARMERS BUT PLEASE BEAR IN MIND WE HAVE OUR HANDS TIED AND OUR MOUTHS SHUT UP BY YES MEN LIVING A LIE!

     RED TAPE AND DOWNRIGHT LIES AND SUDDEN DECISIONS WHICH ARE NOT THOUGHT THROUGH HAVE YET AGAIN PUT A SPANNER IN THE WORKS. WHERE IS MY MOTIVATION WHEN I FINISH IN A MONTHS TIME AND HAVE WORKED AS HARD AS A PERMENENT MEMBER OF STAFF FOR NO LOYALTY AND IDIOTS IN DEFRA LONDON TO SIGN AWAY OUR JOBS ???

    Having had first hand experience of what seem to be errors beyond simple incompetence, I have to ask the question have there been any cases of a spanner deliberately thrown in the works either to delay payments or keep people in jobs?

  • Thu, Feb 11 2010 11:36 In reply to

    • Jacobus
    • Top 75 Contributor
      Male
    • Joined on Sun, May 22 2005
    • Worcestershire
    • Trusted Users

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    I heard on the radio this morning that the new body taking over the administration of MPs expenses payments is going to cost £6.5m a year to run.  That's £10k per claimant!!!!!!  Makes the RPA look super efficient I reckon.

  • Fri, Feb 12 2010 5:07 In reply to

    Re: DEFRA launches RPA investigation

    feel sorry for the case workers etc we deal with as farmers as most faults occur above them and they have to sort it,just unfortunate that some of them fob us off to stall for time.

     RLR ran a pilot scheme for a new mapping system back in july 2009, lucky ole us, we were picked !!, when i rang Dec 18th as we had not received our SFP I was told in Q for validation, same again with a twist on jan 24th, rang and rang and rang,and emailed twice without reply, took until tues 9th feb to get the actual truth,(there is at least one decent person in RPA) apparently a large part of the farm was changed from SDA wihin the moorland line to NON SDA outside the moorland line, due to some problem with the system it can not be changed back to SDA and therefore cleared and payment sent out, how reassured you must understand we are that there are a team of `experts` in ireland trying to`resolve the situation` NOT !!!!!

    Due to ring RPA today, if not any further forward we will be going for the throat, after all someone within RPA/RLR has tampered/altered/falsified/ our SFP application,.

     

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