Saturday, June 27, 2009

[first connex] now metronet


Oh, this is classic.

You probably read the piece about Connex finally being given its marching orders in Melbourne. There were many sentiments like 'good riddance' and 'will they try to come back here'?

It gets better:

The chief executive of Melbourne's new train operator also headed a British rail company that went into administration at a huge cost to taxpayers.

Andrew Lezala, whose Metro Trains Melbourne will soon operate the city's trains, was chief executive of the British rail maintenance company Metronet from May 2005 until it went into administration in July 2007.

It collapsed with £1.7 billion ($A3.5 billion) in debt, forcing the British Government to bail it out.

A damning report on Metronet's failure, released just three weeks ago by Britain's National Audit Office, found the company's management had wasted millions of pounds of public money.

"The main cause of Metronet's failure was its poor corporate governance and leadership," the report said. "We estimate that the overall direct loss to the taxpayer arising from Metronet's administration is between £170 million and £410 million, in 2007 prices."

Just who is appointing people downunder? Maybe they should be the ones scrutinized more closely.

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