Central Government failings in Contract Management

We've covered this story for the last couple of months and have always said that there were problems in the contract management of the G4S and Serco Ministry of Justice (MoJ) contracts.  The report makes for sorry reading, page 13 is the Executive Summary

( https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/267693/contract-management-review.pdf )

There are three crucial questions following on from this report and its publications are:

What will the government do to resolve the skills shortfalls?
Will Serco and G4S be welcomed back in to the government?
Despite some contracts being reviewed further, the government exclusion of G4S and Serco from competing for government contracts at present has the door been left open to compensation claims should no fault be found?

The following government report heaps yet more worries on the government, 28 contracts reviewed and any shortcomings are not the contractors.  To quote from the report "the most significant areas of weakness are around managing performance, payments and incentives, and planning and governance." That doesn't leave very much else ?

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/267694/Cross_Government_Review_of_Major_Contracts_Summary_Report.pdf

If we were to use a health analogy for this saga on government contract management then the patient has died then Pages 13 and 14 of the report put the lid on the coffin and nail it down.

The government has a lot of work to do to get this very sorry saga resolved.  On a happier note the future for G4S and Serco looks brighter; which means that competition for government contracts should become keener which should mean better value for money for the public purse.

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