Given the quantity of money spent on the equipment procurement and support of military equipment, the management of these activities are subject to considerable oversight by senior MoD personnel. All equipment procurement projects involving more than £100m total spend (Cat A and B) require explicit approval from the Investment Approvals Board (IAB) at Initial Gate and Main Gate (and whenever there is a material change to the project)157. The IAB consists of CSA, VCDS, DG Finance, CDM, D CLS and DGD Commercial. For very large projects further approval will be sought at Defence Board or pan-Government level.
For equipment procurement projects in the range £20m-£100m (Cat C) only approval from the DE&S Investment Board (DESIB) is required (though this board must also endorse larger projects which also require external approval). Spending decisions are delegated to project leaders only for projects that cost less than £20m in total (Cat D).
Projects subject to approval by the IAB require scrutiny from Sec(EC)158 in advance and are also now mandated to receive commercial due diligence (as part of recent changes).
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157 IAB is able to delegate authority for Cat B projects to its two-star representatives.
158 Sec(EC) forms one part of the overall MoD centre scrutiny process. Other parties involved include Director Scrutiny and members of Commercial.