UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) re-let its contract for specialist services in May 2014. PA Consulting Services Limited (PA), the incumbent, won three of the five lots and Ernst & Young LLP the other two. The lots won by PA were designed to provide 'sector specialist services'—specialists in a number of industry sectors (such as nuclear, chemicals, food or healthcare) who work to attract overseas investors to the UK or to facilitate UK companies exporting to overseas markets.
PA received £18.8 million in the first year of the contract (11 months to the end of March 2015) and the contract was due to last three years. UKTI let the specialist services contract through a competitive bidding process, and awarded it to PA on the basis of PA's quoted charges. UKTI and PA then agreed to incorporate activity from another contract, thus making a significant change to the specialist services contract.
UKTI subsequently pursued with PA moving to a different charging model—which led to PA sharing, and UKTI reviewing, actual costs incurred under the contract, which would not have happened under the existing charging model.
National Audit Office report
The National Audit Office has held an investigation into the contractual arrangements that UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) had in place since 2013–14 for the outsourcing of sector specialist services with PA Consulting.
In 2015 UKTI brought in auditors from RSM to investigate its contract with PA Consulting for the provision of specialist services, for which PA received £18.8million in the first year of a contract due to last three years.
UKTI had detected inaccuracies in a spreadsheet provided by PA Consulting, as part of negotiating a contract change, that brought into question the basis for charging on the whole contract. RSM questioned the allocation of overheads on the contract and concluded that PA Consulting had "consistently made incorrect and misleading representations" to UKTI. UKTI terminated the contract and agreed a commercial settlement with PA in May 2016.