The Craig Alexander saga does not surprise me

Craig Alexander first made headlines in a local newspaper in 2007 when he was convicted of an armed robbery committed six years earlier.

At the time of his prosecution, Alexander was a project manager with the NHS, but it is not clear how he obtained such an advantageous position at such a young age.  Although project management can be studied at university, Alexander had little in the way of academic qualifications.  One possibility is that he lied about either his qualifications or his experience when applying for the job.

Depending on when he secured the post in question, such an act of dishonesty would have put him in breach of either Section 16 of The Theft Act 1968 or Section 2 of The Fraud Act 2006.

Alexander was dismissed from his job with the NHS, and spent nearly two years in prison for the crime of armed robbery.  Nevertheless upon his release he quickly returned to employment as an NHS manager, and held four lucrative jobs over the next four years.

The Daily Mail reports that: in the four years or so since his release, he has been a senior executive with Bristol Community Health, NHS Sutton and Merton, South West London NHS Cluster and the Brent Primary Care Trust.

The last became NHS Brent in March when responsibility for patient care was transferred to new clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) across the country.

The major issue here is that a convicted armed robber was able to secure one senior post after another within the NHS without anyone bothering to check his background.  He was eventually uncovered by a junior staff member.

Another issue is that Alexander was paid an obscene salary, and was expected to implement budget cuts, but apparently saw no reason to seek to reduce his own salary. In that respect at least, he may be very typical of public sector management.

My own view of the public sector - as a former employee - is that it is full of people, even at the highest level, who are completely out of their depth.  The public sector ought to exist to serve the public interest, and yet far too many of its employees are obsessed with their perceived divine right to a taxpayer-funded salary.

In many cases these salaries are huge - way in excess of what most ordinary people can ever hope to earn.

There is very little accountability in the public sector.  Why should there be?  If you are an elected politician with your snout in the trough, then why should you want to tackle the pen-pushers who share the trough with you?

Some readers may be thinking that large public sector salaries are justified on the grounds that you have to pay well if you want to attract talent, but that is just plain silly.

Paying large salaries makes it more likely that you will end up employing people who are just in it for themselves.

Update: I can find no mention of Craig Alexander having been prosecuted for fraud.  I wonder also if the junior staff member who exposed him as a convicted criminal was rewarded in any way for doing what others far senior to her should have done.