DAA
Surely they should have called this the Department for Administrative Affairs?
UK.gov's Major Projects Authority ain't saving us any money, say MPs
MPs have said they are disappointed in the lack of evidence that the Major Projects Authority has reduced UK.gov's poor track record in delivering big programmes, according to a report released today. The MPA oversees 149 projects, which have a combined lifetime cost of £511bn – many of which include a large element of IT such …
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Friday 18th March 2016 11:39 GMT Jimmy2Cows
not usually wise to merge a delivery organisation with the body providing independent scrutiny
Which is exactly why the bodies will be merged.
Then this whole pesky business of scrutiny, oversight and ensuring value for money can be killed off once and for all, and the government will be forever free to
funnel taxpayer money into their own interestsblow countless billions on poorly designed, planned and executed projects at the behest of their private sector mates. -
Friday 18th March 2016 12:46 GMT Whitter
... better equip ministers and senior civil servants ...
"... better equip ministers and senior civil servants responsible ... with the skills and wider awareness they need to deliver them ..."
Or maybe (a) don't employ civil servants for jobs they are not skilled to do and (b) don't let ministers get into any level of nitty gritty: policy only, then vamoosh.
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Friday 18th March 2016 13:17 GMT RyszrdG
Perfect storm
Too much ambition, too little due diligence, laissez faire governance and a form of Stockholm Syndrome between supplier, customer and oversight invariably creates the perfect storm .. blame, when it happens inevitably assigned to the lowest in the food chain with the real culprits reassigned, promoted or jumping ship. There is no easy solution but I have yet to see any delivery process that is entirely fit for purpose. My experience of government programmes is that concepts that may seem to enshrine a simple political idea rarely scale from proof of concept to national roll-out by which time the politicians have moved on. Like it or not, I can only think of one honourable exception - that of Universal Credit and IDS who at least stayed with the sinking ship despite all the aforementioned delivery issues.
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Friday 18th March 2016 14:05 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Meg Hillier FFS
Meg Hillier WTF does she know about actual delivery and commercial value?
Well, she read Politics Philosophy and Economics at Oxford, you know. And she was elected librarian of the Oxford Union Society. I'm sure those make her really well qualified to comment on project management, budgetary management, technology and infrastructure.
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Monday 21st March 2016 08:00 GMT localzuk
Retaining staff?
Might be easier for them to hire and retain staff if the government wasn't obsessed with cost cutting at every turn. When your job is permanently hanging in limbo, most people would be happy to take a slight pay cut for more security.
Not to mention the government's penchant for outsourcing everything.
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Monday 21st March 2016 09:51 GMT Snapper
We get the government we deserve!
There are always two or three sides to an argument.
If we hound MP's (and their families) for the sin of having outside real world business interests and, presumably, previous experience that could result in a baying mob accusing them of everything under the Sun (deliberate pun) including drowning kittens, then we will only get PPE/OxBridge educated views and skills.
Of course politicians and civil servants are second-rate at running anything. If they were any good they'd be doing it in the private sector away from prying eyes.
You can't get rid of incompetent civil servants. All you can do is promote them to move them out of YOUR department. Seen it happen dozens of times.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
