| Title:
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REPORT ON THE PFI CONTRACT FOR NORTHERN IRELAND'S NEW VEHICLE TESTING FACILITIES
TENTH REPORT TOGETHER WITH THE MINUTES OF PROCEEDINGS OF THE COMMITTEE RELATING TO THE REPORT AND THE MINUTES OF EVIDENCE |
| By: |
Northern Ireland: Northern Ireland Assembly: Public Accounts Committee |
| Format: |
Paperback |
| List price:
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£12.50 |
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| ISBN 10: |
0339602740 |
| ISBN 13: |
9780339602748 |
| Publisher: |
STATIONERY OFFICE, BELFAST |
| Pub. date: |
23 April, 2009 |
| Series: |
Northern Ireland Assembly Reports Session 2008-2009, 35/08/09/ R |
| Pages: |
68 |
| Synopsis: |
The Department of the Environment's Driver and Vehicle Agency (the Agency) is responsible for conducting vehicle tests. By the mid-1990s, the Agency's vehicle testing equipment was outdated and increasingly prone to breakdown. In March 2001, it signed a Private Finance Initiative (PFI) contract costing GBP 57 million for the design, finance and build of 61 computerised test lanes at its 15 test centres. Vehicle tests were meant to take no longer than an average of 18 minutes and customer waiting times for tests must not exceed an average of 14 days. However, the Agency experienced serious problems and its customers were subject to excessive and unacceptable waiting times, particularly in the early years of the contract. Recent improved performance has come at a financial cost. Overall costs are some GBP 6 million higher than if the contracted test times had been delivered, a cost borne exclusively by the Agency's customers. The contract has failed to assign risks in a transparent and appropriate basis and it has proven difficult to determine liability for the failure to deliver the 18 minute test time.The Agency's position has not been helped by its own poor management of the contract. It took almost two years to collect the basic management information essential for performance monitoring. In addition, the Agency consistently failed to provide the level of staffing required by the contract and has a complete lack of knowledge about how profitable this deal has been to the contractor. In the Committee's view there has been too little done by the Agency to resolve its contractual difficulties and its has taken much longer than it should have to initiate the planned performance review. |
| Publication: |
UK |
| Imprint: |
Stationery Office, Belfast |
| Returns: |
Non-returnable |