The A4E files: Whistleblowers reveal damning new claims about Back to Work Tsar's job training firm
People who have worked for A4e paint a damning picture of a company whose former staff at its Slough office are being investigated by police.
In the A4e office in Bradford, one whistleblower alleged staff went to Staples, the stationery store, to buy ‘make-your-own’ stamp kits to use on paperwork staff filled out if they found someone a job.
Every ‘clunk’ of these rubber stamps — in the names of genuine local companies — would ‘show’ someone had been found a job at that firm, and trigger a bounty payout from the Government to A4e.
The form was known as Employment Verification Templates (EVTs), and without it, A4e could not claim money from the Government.
'A whistleblower there said he had resorted to such forgeries under pressure from managers to reach quotas for finding jobs for the unemployed'
‘On the EVT form, a stamp or compliments slip from an employer was required to get the job through,’ says the 37-year-old whistleblower. ‘You had to have something to show a client had been found a job. We were told, "Come what may, you have got to get the EVTs in. If you need to get a rubber stamp, then get a stamp and get them done." They told us to go down to Staples and get a rubber stamp with a genuine company’s name.’
The DIY stamps would then be used to validate the EVT form. The former employee added: ‘We would take the stamps off the premises in case there was an audit. It was common place.’ In High Wycombe, Bucks, there were also claims of DIY stamp kits.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2111872/Emma-Harrisons-A4e-Damning-claims-Back-Work-Tsars-job-training-firm-revealed.html#ixzz1odkqoRkB
Full Story:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2111872/Emma-Harrisons-A4e-Damning-claims-Back-Work-Tsars-job-training-firm-revealed.html
09 March 2012
www.dailymail.co.uk
No comments:
Post a Comment