> There was also "a lack of transparent reporting with evidence that known weaknesses were not reported to key decision-making groups" and the authority was ove

> There was also "a lack of transparent reporting with evidence that known weaknesses were not reported to key decision-making groups" and the authority was overly dependent on outside contractors. "The council did not equip itself with sufficient in-house skills, capacity and experience in key program management roles," it said. This shows a deeply ingrained problem with how some public servants operate and it really boils my blood. There's a bad incentives system where they externalise as much as possible of the responsibility into contractors while maintaining the brags right. In practice this means that it's hard to pin senior officers as directly responsible for any of the problems and thus accountability shifts to trying to push the blame into some few bad contractors. That's such a common trope in the UK that we should have an official name for it at this point.