1.9 To investigate all its procurement options, the Agency needed access to market expertise and decided to seek a consortium of advisers for all advice rather than make single appointments for each specific area such as legal, financial and technical advice. The Agency wanted to establish a single point of contact with its advisers and to avoid the risk of advisers duplicating advice.
1.10 In April 1999, following a competition, the Agency appointed KHHD, a consortium comprising KPMG, Herbert Smith, Hyder Consulting and Detica Ltd (then known as the Smith Group). The contract had two stages. For the first stage, KHHD agreed to conduct a feasibility study of the procurement options for a fixed price of £0.5 million. The second stage was for KHHD to provide advice during the procurement phase, if the Agency decided to go ahead with the project.