The Department appointed a contractor without properly understanding whether it could deliver. The Department undertook a rapid procurement for a grant administrator, who would develop a digital voucher application system for the Scheme. None of the bidders for the contract thought it was possible to fully implement a digital system in time for the launch, and so the Department launched a complex scheme without an IT platform that had been fully developed and tested. The Department’s chosen g...

The Department appointed a contractor without properly understanding whether it could deliver. The Department undertook a rapid procurement for a grant administrator, who would develop a digital voucher application system for the Scheme. None of the bidders for the contract thought it was possible to fully implement a digital system in time for the launch, and so the Department launched a complex scheme without an IT platform that had been fully developed and tested. The Department’s chosen grant administrator, ICF Consulting Services Ltd (ICF), subsequently struggled to implement the voucher application system, leading to greater amounts of Type: recommendation | Number: 5 | Response status: under_consideration Government response: 6. PAC conclusion: Government efficiency drives tend to be one-off events rather than being embedded as a continuous priority.