Bag's Rants

We can't stop living because of risks.

Now, I'm all for punishing the guilty. I fully believe in making people accountable for their actions and believe that at the moment there is a culture where the people at the coal face get the bullet for those above them. That is not right.

Now read this. It is proposing that 'Justice has not been done'. Maybe not. In this case I believe that there is little more that could have been done against senior management but if they had been convicted it would have sent shock waves through our entire country. With undoubtedly a lot of bum covering at great impact on finances and innovation.

Think about it. Companies spend millions evaluation risks. They catalog them and allocate a risk and cost benefit analysis. They they work a way round them at minimal costs and off we go. From now on, if directors were liable, then all risks would need to be closed. An impossible task but every effort would have to be made to minimise them.

Let's take the train example again. A risk is there is a faulty rail as in Hatfield. So what do we do. We check each one. How often? Do we need a man walking in front of the train checking each rail? What about invisible faults? What does the rail making company say? 'Every rail needs an X-ray analysis after every ten trains have passed over plus a replacement rail every hundred trains.' Huh? Oh, they don't want to get sued either so they are being ultra careful.

What about Government, our troops went on their Iraqi visit with insufficient body armour. It was stated publicly and ignored. Mr Hoon made that call. I see jail time coming. Wait, can we even have an army? One risk is a soldier is killed from enemy or US friendly fire. (Sorry couldn't resist). Who sent the troops in? Jail for you Mr Bliar.

Bit of a side track here. In one of my previous jobs I had a company car. The new MD decided he wanted to get all the company car drivers evaluated. Our FD and myself were evaluated by an ex-copper road safety expert. I got a good score. Silver Advanced Driver potential. Who would have thought it? A couple of days later I was talking to the MD while we prepared for a meeting with a customer. I asked him why he was doing this? His reply was that he felt that as an ethical company we needed to take care who had company cars and that they were capable of handling them. I then asked what would happen if I had failed the test. He said he would have removed my ability to have a company vehicle. I then asked about the contractual issues. After all my contract said I was entitled to a car. He said 'or money and the contract does not say it is your choice.' Fair enough. Was everyone taking the tests. Yes, had to keep it fair across the board. So I asked about our sales reps. One in particular had had several crashes over the years and I was convinced he couldn't see properly but was a whizz with blobs. He said 'Them too.' I then said they needed cars, money was not an option. Didn't want then turning up in Ferraris, Maseratis or Bond Bugs. Seems he had not thought that far. Quick check with personnel and it was 'We couldn't remove their cars because their contracts didn't allow it as long as they have a UK license'. So I said we would be evaluating them and if they failed we would still allow them on the road with a company car. Wouldn't that be interesting if someone was killed and it came out in court? We knew but did nothing about it. Headlines 'Company knew crazy driver was unfit to drive but let him drive anyway'. Funny, but nobody else sat any driving tests after that. Must have been coincidence. Some things are better not known.

Anyway, back to the point. Making a life worth something would be a start. It would give a figure to fit into the risk analysis. Minimum of £1M each or their expected life salary. Accountants and MDs can work with that. Alternatively, we can tighten the law up. However, it needs to be tempered with documented evidence that makes sense. In this case a rail is faulty. There needs to a be a process for identifying such rails and tools and processes supplied to do so. Someone checks them. Fault found. It escalates. Someone makes a decision and they are holding the ball. Decision levels need to be defined so the right people make them. Once the directors are holding the ball. Funds will appear. If not that section of track needs to shut down and appropriate penalties paid. We of course will go the whole hog and I have no doubt operational costs will go up all over the country but what the hell? We have banned guns to save, exactly how many lives? So increasing costs by 10 to 15% to save more lives should fit in with our current policies.

I don't see anything happening here we talk about this every time something like this happens. Money talks so it stops there. It would have a major impact on the economy so maybe a committee will be set up to investigate what could be done. Maybe they will even come back with something reasonable.

posted by Bag @ 12:30 pm