Tucked away in the Coalition Agreement between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrat party was this;
We will require full, online disclosure of all central government spending and contracts over £25,000.
Am I the only person that thinks this is going to have a significant impact on defence acquisition?
When we see headline news like the Springer contract costing £7.5million for 75 souped up $20,000 dune buggies or the Husky contract that looks like each one is costing £600,000 the first reaction is horror. Is it any wonder the MoD has no money.
Then we step back and think about and realise that there is much much more than meets the eye; there are costs associated with electronics integration, initial spares packages, training and all manner of other modifications. Perhaps then the costs aren’t as exorbitant as might first appear.
The problem with this is uncertainty and I get the impression that manufacturers and the MoD enter into a cozy ‘conspiracy’ that allow true costs to be obscured behind the smoke of ‘extras’. Even the National Audit Office rarely see the full breakdown, let alone the Defence Select Committee, specialist press or other interested parties.
Public money is public money and there should be a presumption of openness.
For too long the unholy trinity of politics, industrial concerns and over specification have conspired to create the situation where defence acquisition costs have, and continue to, spiral out of control.
Shining light on the process and holding the numbers up to scrutiny may well produce the holy grail of a sensible and cost effective equipment plan. Quite what full disclosure means is anyone’s guess.
I haven’t seen any open intense lobbying from the defence industry but expect it to be going on behind the scenes, defence is a special case they will say, conflating national interest with commercial interest.
National interest or commercial interest, this will be the real test of this commitment.
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5 Comments
“We will require full, online disclosure of all central government spending and contracts over £25,000.
Am I the only person that thinks this is going to have a significant impact on defence acquisition?”
If it means what you think it will mean, it will be explosive.
I had expected it to mean all invoices over £25k would be published, but an invoice could just say,
Springer Project – £7,500,000.
However given the number of MP’s who would want to pick a fight over this, its possible we could get lucky and get your idea, or at least something close to it.
It will take a while till NGOs developed the capacity (and gained the funds) to analyze such mountains of data.
How many NGOs that are competent in military affairs and potentially interested in playing such watchdogs do you know?
POGO. That’s an American NGO, and I think it takes a country that big to create such a NGO capability.
Not going to happen.
Besides citing defense/security issues, there will be contract negotiating issues. The MoD and industry will not want to give away how they negotiated and bartered a deal.
Marcase, I know it is not likely to happen and the definition of full disclosure could mean a range of things but the coalition cannot unsay it, every single item in the agreement will be analysed by a media and opposition hungry too see it fail.
Sven, you underestimate the thirst from the media for scandal Look at what happened with MP’s expenses and there is already lot of controversy about one of the new MoD ministers links with defence related lobbyists
I am sceptical it will happen but should be interesting watching the MoD and defence industry squirming and trying to get off the hook
Many metropolitan councils have been publishing the tender prices of large building projects on the internet for many years now. These lists show the price of the submitted tender and the name of the contractor.
In the case of the Springer it would be interesting to know who the competitors were and what their prices were in comparison.
I don’t know where the figure of £25k was plucked from, probabaly thin air, but that figure alone could create a large bureaucratic cost because of the need to collate and publish a large number of figures. What is needed is the opportunity for open book audits and public accountability on a random sample of larger projects, albeit with an eye on opsec.