“The Committee of Public Accounts publishes its Sixteenth Report of this Session, following its inquiry into the sale of the taxpayer’s stake in Eurostar.
Members conclude there is an over-reliance on a small pool of financial and legal advisers in some asset sales and projects, and the government relies heavily on external advisers for corporate finance skills and expertise.
The Report also highlights the Committee’s concerns about the Department for Transport’s approach to evaluating the benefits and economic impact of transport projects.
It is concerned the Department does not accept its own evaluation of HS1 shows the project was poor value for money – and describes the two year delay in publishing this evaluation as “unacceptable”.
The Committee finds this meant “important information that could have been used by Parliament to consider other projects, such as HS2, was not available”.
It calls on the Department for Transport to develop a “robust way” to evaluate its investments and report on progress by September 2016, and urges that in future such evaluations will be made available “promptly regardless of their findings”.
Covered by BBC here:
East Devon Watch 