Main aspects of the National Audit Office's methodology

2  Our examination covered:

  The conduct of the procurement: how the Home Office and PITO went about procuring Airwave.

The purpose of this part of the examination was to assess whether the Home Office's and PITO's procurement strategies were well prepared and executed. We gave considerable attention to how PITO set about demonstrating value for money after the procurement lost competitive tension.

  The conduct of the pilot: how PITO managed its responsibilities during the pilot.

This part of the examination focused on PITO's role in ensuring that the technological solution built by O2 met the requirements of the contract.

3  In undertaking this examination we followed the approach laid out in a published report10 on our methodology for examining deals under the PFI. In particular, we:

  Designed the examination using experience acquired on our earlier studies of PFI deals;

  Undertook an issue analysis to scope our work through a pyramidal set of audit questions, with each level logically supported by a lower level of more specific questions until, at the bottom, we identified the evidence we had to collect;

  Collected information about the procurement and the pilot; and

  Evaluated the information and advice received.

_______________________________________________________________________________

10  Examining the Value for Money of Deals under the Private Finance Initiative (HC739 Session 1998-99)