17. A number of key staff in the Departments had moved to other jobs very soon after contract signature, leaving only one key member of the original STEPS team still involved in the deal. There were also a number of management changes at Mapeley shortly after the contract was signed. The deal was still bedding in and, while there had been moves on both sides to work in partnership, it had not yet been fully achieved.17 It had also taken three years for the Departments to appoint a professional contract manager.
18. Significant turnover of staff after contract signature had been expected because of the different skills needed to procure a PFI deal, as opposed to delivering, managing and running a contract. But the Departments accepted that they had not recruited a professional contract manager soon enough and should have put in place earlier the people who were going to operate the deal, so that there could have been a proper hand over.18
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17 C&AG's Report, para 19