RISK 9: Resources and skills
Definition Insufficient resources, including human resources (staff capacity, skills, recruitment and retention) or financial capacity is insufficient to manage or procure the contract effectively.
Reason for overall assessment of this risk category in the eight case study projects: Some risks to value for money Lack of skill was identified as a barrier to success in two projects and shortages were reported in two others. We also found that there was sometimes a lack of continuity of staffing from the procurement to operational phases meaning that new staff who were not involved in negotiating the contract had to take over the management of the project. NOTE 1 This project did not proceed to contract and is not part of the current Department portfolio. |
2.42 We found that, whilst project teams had dealt with the procurement process well in general, the level of staff skills and confidence in areas such as budgeting, forecasting and risk allocation varied from team to team. In two of the eight case studies, a lack of skill in the procurement phase was identified by project teams as a factor that had contributed to value for money risks:
■ Despite the use of legal advisers, elements of the Defence Animal Centre contract are vague and it has an ineffective payment mechanism that has led to the service delivery problems. If the project teams had had the right skills and had made proper use of advisers the problems might have been identified prior to the letting of the contract.
■ The Department has also identified lack of procurement and project management skills as a major factor in the failure of the cancelled Armoured Vehicle Training Service PFI project. The Department's post project evaluation concluded that the project team was not originally adequately resourced, or sufficiently experienced in dealing with PFI procurements.