A senior member of the National Audit Office has openly criticised civil servants over the handling of the £1.5bn outsourcing of the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise estate.
Philip Airey, the audit manager who led the investigation of the STEPS deal, told EG the departments should have done more to check that Mapeley could deliver on its bid, which was £500m cheaper than competitors.
Seven months into the deal, Mapeley experienced serious cashflow problems.
Airey said: “Senior people in the departments should have got senior people from Mapeley in and looked them in the eye and said ‘are you sure you can deliver this’? That’s my personal view.”
But he said Mapeley’s bid for the 15.5m sq ft estate had been “irresistible” to the departments and could produce huge benefits for the government.
Mapeley’s financial position improved in 2002 and it is now making a profit on STEPS.
This week, former mmO2 chairman David Varney takes over as executive chairman
of the Revenue and Customs & Excise. He will appear at the Public Accounts Committee on STEPS next month.
References: EGi News 06/09/04
