I worked at a large government department in the late '80s early '90s. I was an external consultant managed by in house staff working with a team of in house programmers. They were all as good as anything in the private sector. The productivity was phenomenal - the head of the team was a polymath genius who could turn his formidable brain to anything. The Civil Servants I worked with were dedicated and knew their business. As an external consultant I was used primarily for skills transfer and SWAT. (The Minister wants a system to do X - it must be running in two weeks. Make it so).
After an external 3rd party took over the contract I would receive impassioned calls/emails from users. "Can we please employ you directly? We are being quoted 10 times as much as you charge with lead times that are 10 times longer". Of course we couldn't help as we were prevented from taking business directly.
I retain massive respect for the teams I worked with and am mortified by how my old department has been gutted to suit political ends. I still have the tie I was presented with as part of the team. I wouldn't wear it though - it wasn't the most publicly popular department.
So anybody saying "The Civil Service didn't have the resources 15 years ago" - maybe not - they were gutted 25 years ago to satisfy a political agenda.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
