2 The examination covered:
■ The conduct of the procurement: how National Savings went about the task.
The purpose of this part of the examination was to assess whether National Savings' approach was well planned and implemented and likely to produce an outcome in line with its 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 National Savings' operational needs within a price that provides value for money. It also encompassed SBS's performance in providing the operational service in the early stages of the contract.
3 In undertaking this examination we followed the approach laid out in our published report3 on our methodology for examining private finance deals. In particular, we:
■ designed the examination using experience acquired on our earlier studies of Private Finance Initiative deals;
■ collected information about the procurement process and the deal;
■ used an external firm and individual expert in aspects of the Private Finance Initiative to advise on specific issues;
■ evaluated the information and advice received; and
■ evaluated National Savings' performance against the key lessons from two recent reports by the Committee of Public Accounts (Appendix 3).
_______________________________________________________________________________
3 Examining the Value for Money of Deals under the Private Finance Initiative (HC739 Session 1998-99)