Report shows a third of major projects unlikely to complete on time
High levels of staff turnover and skills shortages mean that a third of government projects are expected to miss their delivery target, a report by the National Audit Office (NAO) has suggested.
The NAO report showed that there are 149 projects in the Government Major Project Portfolio, with a whole-life cost of £511 billion and an expected spend of £25 billion in 2015-16. However, 35 per cent (37 out of 106) of the projects scheduled for delivery in the next five years are rated as red or amber-red, meaning they’re not likely to be completed on deadline, delaying the benefits and ramping up costs.
Several causes were flagged in the report including high turnover of leaders, a failure to attract vital talent, and skills shortages relating to digital and commercial expertise forcing projects to rely on contractors.
The report said that while it was not normal practice for senior leaders to be responsible for a project from beginning to end the turnover had been high. “Our analysis of senior responsible owners’ turnover for 73 projects shows that only four projects (5 per cent) have had a single senior responsible owner responsible for the project over a four-year period. Some 56 per cent of projects have had at least two changes in senior responsible owner."
It said that attracting talent from the private sector had proved difficult because remuneration is typically lower in the civil service. Progress also suffered due to skills shortages in specific areas needed to deliver the complex infrastructure and transformational change projects now included departments’ portfolios, such as digital, legal, analytical, risk management and behaviour change skills.
Improvements could be achieved, the report said, if roles and competencies were clearly defined to enable project delivery professionals to be transferred more easily between departments.
NAO said that a key challenge for the project authority and civil service department during this parliament was to develop a process to prioritise projects by strategic importance, then deploy skilled to these projects.
NAO also highlighted the future impact of the new Infrastructure and Projects Authority (IPA), which was launched on 1 January this year to manage and deliver major projects for the government. It brings together Infrastructure UK and the Major Project Authority (MPA).
Work to improve the capability of project leaders had already begun when the MPA launched the Major Projects Leadership Academy. The NAO report said that at 1 October 2015, 380 project leaders had been enrolled and 161 of these had graduated. The cost of the academy is £30,000 per participant, with a total cost of £11 million to September 2015.
Commenting on the launch of the IPA, the minister for the Cabinet Office, Matt Hancock, said: "Having one organisation to ensure the effective delivery of such vital government projects makes perfect sense. It will bring together project expertise with funding authority to challenge and support projects that will benefit the British economy and benefit taxpayers."
Amyas Morse, head of NAO, said: "I acknowledge that a number of positive steps have been taken by the authority and client departments. At the same time, I am concerned that a third of projects monitored by the authority are red or amber-red and the overall picture of progress on project performance is opaque. More effort is needed if the success rate of project delivery is to improve."