The latest edition of Private Eye tells of a recent NAO report “allocation and management of risk” in Ministry of Defence PFI Projects.
"with its standard introduction whitewash declaring that “deals are delivered satisfactorily, on time and on budget”.It has this to say about the Defence Training Review (DTR):
Only the small print reveals that they were only “on time and to budget following the contract signature”. Given that costs frequently go through the roof in the 45 months it takes on average to get to this stage for deals worth more than £50m, the statement is therefore meaningless."
Undeterred, as the Eye has reported, the MoD now plans a £12bn PFI deal to privatise defence training across all the services. Unsurprisingly about 30% of this plan has already been pulled and the rest is way behind schedule.And on the "defence fixed telecommunications system":
"meanwhile on the "defence fixed telecommunications system" PFI contract with BT. The NAO reported that "staff in call centres operated under the contract were artificially inflating call numbers to meet targets for successfully completed calls". Though the filched "service payments" of £1m have been repaid, as has the £122K cost of an MoD police investigation, no compensation or fine has been paid and BT keeps its £200m a year contract."
The full article can be viewed here.
9 comments:
NAO report?
Cherrypie: Dizzy Thinks broke the story between 2 and 3 this morning, and raised the question why the MSM did not run with it. I picked up his point and did a post on it. I also contacted the BBC an hour before the Today programme was broadcast. I have screengrabs where they visited my blog twice and I know they visited Dizzy's. I believe there is a MSM blackout on the story. If so, I cannot see it lasting out the day.
Well done, Cherie. My article was from he point of view of the NHS.
Ginro - National Audit Office.
JHL - Thanks for that. It makes a very interesting read. That is a scary amount of money! I don't see how they can black it out. The information is all in the public domain. I needed someone like Dizzy to piece it together!
James - That is another worthy choice. Something else I have campaigned about ;-)
Aha, I see. Now I understand, lol.
Cherrypie: Having pieced it together, just for the MSM to ignore it is disappointing. Surely, it cannot be a non-story and has to be a DA Notice upon it?
Ginro :-)
JHL - It does sound like it has doesn't it?
PFI is a ridiculous fraud and if the economy gets much worse it could really bite us on the arse.
Rob - Yes it is a con!
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