More on PADA
My attack on the Personal Accounts Delivery Authority’s spiralling costs earned me a stinging rebuke from the chief executive, Tim Jones. He sent me a letter denying that costs were out of control or 300 per cent over budget, and asking me for a meeting. To be fair, the article I quoted does not suggest running costs are out of control. What it does suggest, and is a rumour doing the rounds in pensions circles, is that the cost of building the systems has risen from £500 million to £2 billion. The analogy would be if your house cost four times more to build, but your costs to run the house remained the same…
I replied to Tim’s rebuke and demand for a meeting with four questions for PADA to answer:
1. What is PADA’s own budget for its running costs, and how much of this has been spent to date?
2. What is the current plan for the total cost of building and initially running Personal Accounts (systems and so forth)? It was £500 million, but what is it now? How does this figure break down across the various elements of the required build and preparation?
3. Given that there has been a clear commitment from Government that Personal Accounts will stand on their own two feet financially – with no further subsidy from the tax payer – over what period of time are you currently assuming it is realistic for Personal Accounts to cover their build and subsequent running costs? (This will obviously depend upon take up volumes and the actual level of charges applied, so please provide the figures you have assumed.)
4. What is the total number of full and part time consultants employed currently in PADA? Please include both Deloittes and other consultants. What is the smallest day rate and what is the highest day rate that PADA is paying for these consultants? What is the typical figure?
He hasn’t answered them, but he has summoned me again to a meeting, which I will attend and where I will no doubt be bamboozled with figures and told other matters (ie the cost of consultants) are commercially confidential. I’ll keep you posted.
canvas said on March 21st, 2008 at 3:25 pm:
Better you than me. sounds dreary.
Why doesn’t Tim Jones just post all the figures on a website for the public to see?
What’s the big secret?
Tizzy said on March 22nd, 2008 at 4:58 am:
Yes, please keep us posted on this one. It’s not the sort of thing that can be kept quiet, so why doesn’t Tim Jones give you the low-down sooner rather than later? It is public money, yes?