The Public Accounts Committee is a parliamentary seelect committee which examines all aspects of government expenditure.
It published its annual review of government expenditure yesterday.
It's not a lengthy report, but it paints a picture of shocking government incompetence, failure to run Departments effectively and to exercise effective control of government monies.
From the opening section:
2. What needs to change
Week in, week out the Committee of Public Accounts examines individual government projects. But there are repeated problems which Whitehall must be better at addressing.
The disconnect between commissioning and delivery
This last year has seen an unprecedented turnover of ministers. Perhaps less commented on is the continuing churn in the civil service. Those involved in commissioning are rarely there long enough to see through to delivery. In my report I highlight the most glaring example – defence procurement. Defence stands out but it is not the only department with fast turnover or short serving project leaders.
We need better ownership of the whole process, and this cannot be achieved in a culture in which officials are constantly on the move. Officials also need to be properly trained to deliver each stage of the project which they are responsible for. As one frustrated minister said to me recently: “I cannot believe that I am dealing with a string of gentleman amateurs on such important and complex programmes.”
Technical capabilities
Despite all the rhetoric we still do not have the level of technical capability for our digital world. We have seen progress regarding financial qualification, but we still have a mountain to climb when it comes to securing digital and project management skills in Whitehall. Government is also competing with employers around the world keen to attract skilled digital specialists. Rules on Whitehall salaries can frustrate the delivery of critical major projects.
Fail fast
The mantra of the technology world is fail fast – a culture where error can be quickly acknowledged and rectified, where we learn from our mistakes. Whitehall too often clings to projects which have failed. I still see too much optimism bias in operation and the movement of staff means that this optimism is sometimes inherited by later programme leads who don’t have a project overview.
Better understanding of risk
Benjamin Franklin famously said the only two certain things in life were death and taxes. For government we might add that it is certain that it will need to deal with uncertainty. No one could predict the Covid-19 pandemic, but we could have been better prepared.
The scale of the losses incurred in a panic response on issues such as PPE procurement are documented in this report. We need to learn the lesson that there is always unpredictability.
The military mantra is that no plan survives the battle, but never go into battle without a plan. Put simply we were unprepared. Whitehall is resistant to creating a Chief Risk Officer. We need to see a step change in Whitehall and among politicians about the value for spending to mitigate or be prepared for risk. Optimism bias creeps in here too – no-one thinks it will happen on their watch.
There is difference between risk and uncertainty. Risks can be calculated. Government is there to protect the citizen and is the provider or funder of last resort in uncertain times. The banking crisis in 2008, the pandemic in 2020 and the energy crisis of 2021 are examples of where the risk management is largely outside the reach of Whitehall but where Government needs to step in.
Too often the civil service is focused on the task rather than the outcome. In the discussions about policy and delivery Whitehall is still more focused on the former. There is no real incentive for policy teams to ensure outcomes.
committees.parliament.uk/publications/40191/documents/196316/default/
While the section I have quoted appears to lay much of the blame on the civil service reading the full report makes it clear that failure is as much the responsibility of ministers as it of the civil servants who have to implement their policies.
It is also notable that underfunding of departments is a key part of government failure.
I hope that people will read the whole report. It's not very long and it is eye opening.
