Those who contact out work are blind

I've seen this sort of thing twice in the last few weeks - contractors for Energy Australia working on improving the electrical distribution system.  In both cases, the contractors were working within spitting distance of a vandalised Energy Australia kiosk.  In this case, the kiosk is right behind the truck in the photo below, and the contractors were sitting around the kiosk having morning tea when I took the photo. 

The sign below explains who they are and what they are up to.

The chances of these contractors reporting the vandalism to Energy Australia are probably somewhere close to zero.  It's not something I would necessarily expect them to do, unless they were specifically asked to do so by Energy Australia.  Assuming that Bastow Civil Constructions has a long term contract with Energy Australia, you might think it reasonable that they have the sort of working relationship where EA would expect Bastow staff to act as their eyes for them - but that does not appear to be the case.  They dig holes and lay cable and leave it at that.

On top of that, I'd assume that from time to time, an Energy Australia manager would visit sites like this to check on the work that Bastow are doing.  I would expect that a manager employed by Energy Australia would care enough to do something about graffiti on an Energy Australia asset - but from what I can gather, I have higher expectations than many.

Contracting out work is something that I have no complaint with.  But in doing so, many organisations have lost direct visibility of how their assets look.  Contractors are "all care and no responsibility" - in this instance, they care about laying their pipes and cables properly, but have no responsibility for ensuring that this asset doesn't make the neighbourhood look like a slum.