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Comment on G4S is just the latest in a long line of outsourcing disasters

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The problem is not outsourcing, it's thinking that you can outsource (or delegate) and important task and not pay attention to it's execution.

Good management breaks outsourced projects down into replaceable, manageable chunks. This is important for oversight and for competition. If you size an outsourced chunk of work correctly, then you should be able to increase competition for that contract. If you structure the contract correctly, your oversight should be able to identify and replace problemed contractors.

These guys are all smart enough to know that. It's just that they are also all smart to know that it is easier to avoid political responsibility for failures when it can be blamed on an outside contractor.

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