Managing Aspire costs
3.9 In our 2006 report we estimated that the total contract cost could be more than £7.3 billion. This is nearly twice the £3.6 billion to £4.9 billion modelled when HMRC procured the contract. The contract cost more in the first year than originally planned because HMRC increased the volume of work it commissioned. We said, in 2006, that HMRC must control costs and get value from the extra spending. HMRC said it did not expect spend to be as high as we predicted because it expected its demand for ICT services to decline.
3.10 Between contract award in July 2004 and March 2014, HMRC spent £7.9 billion on Aspire. Total annual spend on Aspire peaked in 2006-07, immediately after the merger of Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise. Since then, project spend has more than halved, and overall spend has reduced by 23 per cent. By contrast, spend on services has stayed relatively stable since 2006-07. (Figure 9).
Figure 9 Spend peaked in 2006-07 after the merger of Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise - project spend has now more than halved, but service spend has been stable
Notes 1 Data for 2004-05 is for nine months only. The merger affected services mostly from January 2006 although project work was increasing before this. 2 Amounts have been adjusted to 2013-14 values using the GDP deflator. 3 Numbers may not add due to rounding. Source: National Audit Office analysis of HM Revenue & Customs' data |
