UK NEWS

PFI FIRM CHARGES £300 FOR PLUG WORK

Wednesday January 16,2008

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How much does it cost to install a new electrical socket? For civil servants and officials overseeing public-private partnership projects, it seems that the answer is anything up to £300.

A report by the National Audit Office - the official Whitehall spending watchdog - found wide discrepancies in the amounts officials were prepared to pay for even the simplest changes to public finance initiative (PFI) projects.

For instance, the cost of installing a new electrical socket ranged from £302.30 - - three times the £51 to £103 "benchmark" recommended by the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors - to just £30.81.

A new lock could cost anything from £486.54 to £15.09, while the price paid for a key ran from £4.26 at the cheapest to £47.48 at the most expensive - a tenfold increase.

While one PFI contractor was prepared to put up a new noticeboard for free, another charged a staggering £149.71.

In all, Government departments and other public bodies spent more than £180 million on changes to operational PFI projects in 2006.

They included £300,000 spent by the Home Office on installing 300 new desks, to a £104,000 bill run up by HM Revenue and Customs for a "space planning facility" to re-configure the layout of its Whitehall offices.

However the NAO said that too often, officials had failed to ensure value for money for the taxpayer.

Edward Leigh, the chairman of the Commons Public Accounts Committee which oversees the work of the NAO, said public sector contract managers needed to be "a lot more street-wise" when dealing with their private sector counterparts.

The Treasury said that it had recently issued new guidance to ensure that full value for money was obtained when changes were made, both for new contracts and existing contracts.

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JUST FOR THE RECORD

17.01.08, 11:48am

Just for the record last year through taxes etc the government had a budget of around £860,000,000,000 (from us the the law abiding tax aying public) and out of this the government spent over £200,000,000,000 (1/4) on consultants,quango's etc,ost of whom are repaying the governments generosity with the tax payers money with bungs ,backhanders and cushy jobs for the wastefull ministers and politicians who get them on the tax payer funded gravy train.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

• Posted by: jonG • Report Comment

PFI

17.01.08, 10:16am

The Government are forever getting rid of civil servants and then bringing in outside agencies to do the work under the pretence of cost and efficiency. Someone high up probably gets a nice little bung from whoever wins the contract. As far as outside contractors are concerned, it's Government money so they can milk it for all it's worth.
There is a hugh reservoir of knowledge and expertise within the civil service but the Government persist in paying a kings ransom to consultants to come in and tell us what we already know. I expect there's a place on the board for ministers who employ these experts, once their political career is over.
With the exception of their own needs, this Government is a firm believer in 'cheapest is best' but in the long run they get caught out by the fine print in the agreements they make (due to not being experienced businessmen) and we tax payers get stung once again.

• Posted by: jonocynic9 • Report Comment

IT WILL COME HOME TO ROOST

17.01.08, 9:14am

Just wait a while and you will see how badly nu labour have run the economy. PFI is a license to print money at the taxpayers expense and it will come home to roost in the next 10 years. Get ready for more tax raids on your pockets.

• Posted by: Col • Report Comment

THE MORE TAX MONEY THE GOVERNMENT RECEIVES THE MORE THINGS THEY FIND TO SPEND IT ON!

17.01.08, 5:34am

I'm amazed its only an up to £300.
Playing fast and lose with tax payers money in this way is easy...why stop at £300?
The Westminster gravy train rolls on...

The more tax money the government receives the more things they find to spend it on!

• Posted by: TicToc • Report Comment