2 The examination covered:
■ The conduct of the procurement: how the Contributions Agency went about the task.
The purpose of this part of the examination was to assess whether the Agency's approach was well planned and implemented and likely to produce an outcome in line with their objectives. The process impacts on:
■ Outcome: how far the outcome should meet the objectives.
This part of the examination focused on the extent to which the signed deal should meet the Department's accommodation needs within a price that provides value for money compared with alternatives.
3 To carry out the examination we followed the approach laid out in our recently published report on our methodology for examining Private Finance deals (Examining the value for money of deals under the Private Finance Initiative (HC739, 1998/99)). In particular, we:
■ Designed the examination using experience acquired on our several earlier studies of Private Finance Initiative deals;
■ Collected information about the procurement process and the deal;
■ Used three external firms expert in aspects of the Private Finance Initiative to advise on specific issues;
■ Obtained advice from an authority on economic appraisal; and
■ Evaluated the information and advice received.