Following the discovery of serious anomalies in the billing practices under the Ministry of Justice's electronic monitoring contracts with G4S and Serco, Government commissioned a series of reviews of contract management across departments. These found widespread, consistent and long standing problems. As a result, the Cabinet Office requested all departments prepare contract management improvement plans.
The Committee held two hearings on this matter in 2014, the first examining contract management improvement plans in the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice and the second looking more widely at Government’s response and the changes being led by the Cabinet Office and the new Crown Commercial Service. The report was published on Wednesday 10 December 2014.
Home Office and Ministry of Justice
This inquiry assessed approaches to contract management in the Ministry of Justice and Home Office including: the responses to the recent internal reviews of contract management problems; governance and accountability arrangements; contract management capability and management information; and whether good practice was being actively identified and shared. It scrutinised what went wrong with contract management in the two departments and their efforts to improve it; and examined what more government could do to help departments improve their contract management performance.
Cabinet Office
This inquiry focused on contract management across the whole of government. It looked at lessons from the overbilling and corporate renewal episodes; commitments to tackle long-standing problems with contract management across government; and the role of the new Crown Commercial Service in supporting this agenda.
