Beastrabban, reblogging this on his own site, had the following to say: “As you might expect from this inquiry, both Lisa Coleman, the senior vice president of Atos, and Robert Devereux, the DWP’s permanent secretary, are both denying that there’s anything remotely wrong with Atos’ tender application for the Personal Incapacity Payments. Atos haven’t lied at all about the number of centres that they had actually contracted to provide accommodation for people coming to be assessed. No! It’s all very unfortunate, and due to that old standby, unforeseen circumstances. No, according to Devereux, Atos have indeed got the right number of people to do a test half as long, but this couldn’t have been predicted. Actually, Atos’ performance and the excuses they and Devereux have presented to the Committee seem entirely predictable. It’s yet another example of a company with a reputation for poor service and dishonesty having made inflated, dishonest claims in order to beat its rivals to a lucrative government contract. As for Devereux, the DWP sets the assessment, which Atos is contracted to administer. He thus is obliged to defend Atos as their failure is partly his fault. Also, given the way previous senior civil servants have also walked into jobs as directors of companies to which they have awarded contracts, it also would not surprise me if Devereux is similarly looking forward to joining Atos’ board. The impression given of Coleman’s and Devereux’ performance before the Work and Pensions Committee is that it’s very much the type of excuses and self-justification by the officious, mendacious and incompetent that regularly gets into Private Eye’s ‘Called to Ordure’ column, which comments on the the conduct of MPs and senior civil servants before parliamentary committees. And from the description here, this is a classic example.”