Letter from Chief Executive, Defence Procurement
Agency to Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP
I have seen the record in Hansard[2]
of your remarks during last month's defence procurement debate
in the House of Commons, where you quoted my evidence the previous
day to the Committee of Public Accounts. The Hansard record reads
as follows:
Sarah McCarthy-Fry MP (Portsmouth, North) (Lab):
"Does the hon Gentleman agree with yesterday's
comments by Sir Peter Spencer to the Public Accounts Committee
on the MOD Major Projects Report? He said that procurement difficulties
are due in large part to the `toxic legacy' of previous Governments
and that he expects such difficulties to continue for some years
to come."
In response, Mr Gerald Howarth MP is recorded
as saying:
"I have not seen Sir Peter's remarks,
and I shall read them with great care. Sir Peter is in charge
now; the delays are occurring now; and the in-service dates are
slipping now. It is no good blaming the Government of eight years
ago for something for which this Government have taken responsibility
for the past eight years. Sir Peter has been in office for the
past two or three years, so he should be careful when it comes
to casting beams out of other's eyes."
I am writing to put on record that your statement
appears to be based on a misunderstanding of my evidence to the
PAC hearing on the Major Projects Report 2005 on 1 February 2006.
As the transcript of that hearing shows at question 39, in referring
to continuing problems on older projects included in the current
Major Projects Report population, what I actually said was that
the Department would "continue with this toxic legacy for
some years and part of the challenge is how we try retrospectively
to deal with the problems which needed to have been sorted out
ab initio. "
These remarks were wholly without reference
to which Government was in power at the time these older projects
were initiated. Indeed the facts as demonstrated by the MPR itself
show that the approval of the range of such projects straddles
both the current and previous Administrations.
I trust that this clarification will set the
record straight.
Sir Peter Spencer KCB
Chief of Defence Procurement & Chief Executive
14 March 2006
2 Hansard, 2 February 2006, Col 508. Back
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