A project to widen two stretches of the UK's busiest motorway could have wasted £1bn of public money, MPs have said."Could have" but it didn't? Do they mean "may have"?
It took nine years to negotiate the PFI contracts. That cost £80m. Now, you get no road for this at all. The agency spent £80m on consultants and advisers, firms that directly benefited from delays in the process, the report said:
More should have been done to limit the costly delays to the project and the amount spent on advisers who will have benefited from the drawn-out procurement.Guess what? The incompetent official in charge of the project, a Mr Scholey, is now a consultant doing work for Balfour Beatty, which runs PFI projects.
How cosy.
The Highways Agency said the project was progressing on time and under budget. Which just shows what an easy touch they are.
Have you ever noticed any sense of urgency at all in road works - that is, once the speed cameras have been installed?
And what about the quality of work? The M25 road surface is already poor on the M11-A12 stretch - just where work has been done.
But the complacent Highways Agency are cosily satisfied. No wonder their officials can find work with PFI companies after they leave.
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