Conclusions and recommendations
1. Including
£146 million contingency in the request for resources, without
full supporting detail, is asking Parliament to take too much
on trust. (Paragraph 8)
2. We regret that
MoD does not appear to have taken seriously our predecessors'
recommendation that more information be provided in support of
the Spring Supplementary Estimate. We recommend that the Department
ensure that in future its Estimates Memoranda contain a full break-down
of the resources requested. (Paragraph 9)
3. We recommend that
in future MoD's Annual Report and Accounts contain significantly
more detailed information on the cost of operations. (Paragraph
10)
4. MoD must recognise
that the agreement of the Treasury is not a substitute for Parliamentary
approval, and that providing information to the Treasury is not
enough. (Paragraph 14)
5. We consider that
the arrangement by which MoD waits for the Spring Supplementary
Estimates before seeking Parliament's approval of expenditure
on operations is unsatisfactory, and we recommend that it cease.
We recommend that in future provision for commenced operations
be made in the Main Estimates in the usual way, if necessary with
a large element for contingency. (Paragraph 15)
6. We also recommend
that in future MoD provide to this Committee regular, perhaps
quarterly, updates of the cost of operations, in the same way
as it provides information to the Treasury. (Paragraph 16)
7. We recommend that
in future provision for operations in the Balkans be set out in
MoD's Main Estimates. (Paragraph 17)
8. Telling Parliament
that the costs of the deployment to Afghanistan is "around
a billion" is just not good enough. This is a very large
amount of public money, and the public deserve better information
on how it is going to be spent. (Paragraph 18)
9. We recommend that
MoD take steps to ensure that the Scrutiny Unit's guidance on
the production of estimates memoranda is followed in future. (Paragraph
19)
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