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NAO Major Projects Report - 2009

From the NAO this morning - apparently a £6bn to £36bn hole over 10 years in procurement.

Ministry of Defence: Major Projects Report 2009

And some comments here:

Auditor criticises 'save now, pay later' MoD | Politics | guardian.co.uk

All very interesting - need to have a close read.

S41

Interesting indeed Squirrel, coming as it does on the day Bumbling Bob has to swing the axe for the first time - provides lots of useful ammunition for any spin doctor justifying cuts, don't you think?

Now I concede that our skills in commercial negotiation and general procurement could do with a bit of tweaking, but you don't suppose the action of the MOD in slowing the 'drumbeat' (not heard that one before, but I love it!) of various projects has anything to do with the Treasury refusing to fund the Armed Forces properly.

No, that can't be it!

It is irritating that it’s never Treasury (and Government Accounting rules) inflexibility or sheer bloody mindedness held to blame for these inevitable “re-profiling” exercises. Some parts of the MoD could have told the NAO that amazing revelation over 15 years ago. I remember, about then, being ticked off by the chairman of a meeting for being flippant. I had merely pointed out that we had proposed yet another “save to spend” measure.

Quote:

I agree. It is extremely frustrating for project managers to be accused, after the event, of delivering late, when in fact there has been a Treasury or MoD imposed freeze earlier in the project (which the butterflies with their 2 year postings don't recall or have never experienced). Not the only reason for delays, but is significant.

The last time I was told to freeze a project, we had just completed final field trials, the kit was delivered and the User two days from deployment to sandy places. I told boss to **** off. He then told me to cancel it altogether. (>> stronger language). Perhaps the same "chairman" GBZ!?

Note - the author of this report was previously the MoD's Commercial Director responsible for commercial / contracting policy, so it is entirely possible the situation is worse than painted!

I think you'll find that Amyas Morse is not actually the author of the report - rather it is issued in his name as C&AG. The Director who ran the study was actually Tim Banfield, whilst I'm confident that the principal auditor involved day to day was Nigel Vinson (ex Infantry).