2.31 Government is not generally making best use of its scarce commercial skills. There is a lack of management information available to the OGC and departments on the commercial skills, experience and availability of commercial staff. Furthermore, there is no formal mechanism to allocate staff across departments. This restricts the planning of projects, and prevents government moving commercial staff across departments, where this would best suit the needs of projects or the individuals concerned.
2.32 Ensuring that complex projects being transacted and managed at local levels are receiving support from those with the appropriate skills and experience, is a particular challenge for government. Our report on the Norfolk and Norwich Hospital PFI contract25 found that commercially inexperienced NHS Trust officials accepted a level of termination liabilities higher than in other comparable deals. A noteworthy initiative to address local skills has been Defra's establishment of a central pool of staff with commercial experience, who are seconded to local project teams in the Waste Management PFI programme.26
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25 The Refinancing of the Norfolk & Norwich PFI Hospital, NAO (HC 78, 2005-6).