Lessons of the Bristol Siddeiey Engines Scandal

from a Hull reader All property is theft, but theBristcl Siddeley Engines owners have been doing an extra- ordinary amount of thieving recently. Not content with the huge subsidies (amount to millions of pounds) which they have been receiving recently from public money, BSE hirsher management have been fiddling the books, making massive excess profits and lying about it all the time. A year ago, after an enquiry by the House cf Commons Public Accounts Committee, it was thought that the BSE management had simply made a mere £4 million excess profit - which they were instructed to repay. Even so, BSE were left with 20% as the normal, legal profit margin - made out of RAF contracts and government subsidies during the pericd 1959-63. At last vear's public enquiry, Sir Reginald Verdun-Smith, who was then the chairman of the BSE board of directors’ (andnow vice-chairman of Rolls Royce) and also on the board of Lloyds Bank, was very vague and evasive about the excess profits, to say the least, And last week came the latest bombshell in the BSE scandal. According to the latest House of Commons report, the BSE management ‘budgeted for and achieved exorbitant profits' on Government contracts. The Report adds that concerning the 1959-63 RAF contract, the BSE management spokesmen had committed what ‘amounted to intentional misrepresentation, by which the (Govt) department were deceived'. The BSE bosses did not make the excess profit "by accident". As the latest Report says: 'The approximate extent of the profitability of these contracts was, at the time, known to the company at all levels of management. We do.not accept that the overcharging has been justified by any cf the arguments put forward by the company.' How did BS# management do their profiteering? It is pretty clear from the latest Report that the main technique t at the BSE management used to make their excess profits was that of keeping their account books closed to Government inspection, in particular, the Report says'the main reason why the (Govt) department failed to prevent excessive profits from being made on the overhaul contracts was that the estimates of man hours made and accepted sees were too hiph (As in the recent Hawker Siddeley Buccaneer* case), In cther wards, the Government which put up the money, was not allowed to see shop floor accounts and BSE were saying that wage costs were much hirher than they were. And, of course, the same sort of deceitful and unacceptable mamagement arguments were used against the workers in that period too as a way of opposing wage claims. The Government now clairs that it has tightened up on aircraft employers. Socialist aim: Workers' Control and Nationalisation of Aircraft As you will know, the Naticnal Shop Stewards Combine of BSE has a workers control study group which is working on a plan for the future of the industry. It is becoming increasingly clear that the following immediate demand must be made: all the account booksof BSE must be fully open to shop steward inspection and not just government inspection. But the latest BSE scandal strengthens the trade union arguments for the complete nationalisation of the airframes and the aero-engines sections of the industry. After all the BSE directors, including Sir Reggie, are now Rolls Royce. There are several BSE directors who should be prosecuted, as Eric Heffer suggested in Parliament last week, If an unemployed werker pinches a few bob from a gas meter, he gets ‘ail. If a millionaire whips £4 million, he can get a job with Rolls Royce,