Another scathing report from a parliamentary select committee has further shredded the remnants of the UK’s reputation for infrastructure procurement. We reported two issues ago (CL Vol 30 No 5) on the evidence session of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) which brought out some astonishing revelations in the wake of the discovery that the Crossrail project was late and over budget. It should have been open in December 2018 and is now forecast to open in March 2021; the original budget of £14.8 billion has been well bust, by at least £2.6 billion, and counting.
The PAC report following that evidence session has been released and pulls few punches in its denunciation of the management of the project. As we pointed out two issues ago, such condemnations are not unfamiliar in relation to public sector procured projects, but Crossrail was a rare beast in being run by a private company, Crossrail Ltd, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Transport for London.
The PAC report doesn’t let the public sector off the hook however. The Department for Transport (DfT) still insists that it acted ‘swiftly and effectively’ once it was realised that the project had hit problems and says it consistently challenged the leadership of Crossrail Ltd, changing the leadership of the Board and strengthening its governance structures.
At least new Chairman of Crossrail Mark Wild accepts that the performance up to now represents a failure. The new management team has produced a new plan to finish the project and get the much needed railway operating, and the DfT says it and Transport for London will ‘continue to scrutinise progress to ensure this happens as soon as possible’. Which raises the question of why they either weren’t doing that before, or why their oversight of progress was so ineffectual.
The PAC doesn’t swallow these promises and has called into question the DfT’s capability to oversee major rail projects.
In the management’s defence it could be argued that Crossrail – now called the Elizabeth Line – is the biggest infrastructure project in Europe, which brings its own levels of complexity. Its 26 miles of tunnels and 41 stations will increase Central London’s rail capacity by a badly needed 10%, but building this through Central London is far from a straightforward engineering and logistical challenge. The PAC isn’t swung by this however, and found that: ‘No one was coordinating the activity of all contractors and acting as an effective “controlling mind”, despite the fact that the programme partners, Bechtel and Transcend Ltd, were originally contracted by Crossrail Ltd to fulfil this role.’
The PAC unsurprisingly criticises the fact that senior managers of Crossrail are being paid bonuses despite their well catalogued failures. Allegations from within Crossrail that called into question whether all of the project’s contractors provided accurate and timely information regarding progress remain unresolved and calls have been made for a public inquiry. There would be much for an inquiry to mull over.
Oliver Dowden, new paymaster general and minister for the Cabinet Office who is responsible for procurement in Boris Johnson’s new government team, might be having a closer look at what happened with Crossrail as the government prepares to act on promises to boost infrastructure spending.
Nick Barrett
Editor