A report by the National Audit Office (NAO) last week highlighted several delivery problems of the DWP’s flagship UC scheme, partly attributing them to “a fortress mentality” and “a culture of good news reporting that limited open discussion of risks and stifled challenge.”
Asked by the Public Accounts Committee yesterday, why such a culture had been created, Devereux (pictured above) said: “I think it’s a combination of some of the people in charge having a ‘let’s punch through’ and ‘we need to get stuff done’ mentality. But there comes a point where that becomes the wrong answer.”
Committee chair, Margaret Hodge, who accused Devereux of trying to shift the blame, told him: “You are in charge. This is the biggest programme in DWP. You are the accounting officer.”
While Devereux agreed that this was “the most important programme” in his department, he added: “I am not running the programme. I am running a very large organisation. I put people in place that were the best I had available with experience of doing this.”
Devereux insisted he only realised in July 2012 that there were “unresolvable problems”.
Committee member, Richard Bacon MP, said: “The fact that you didn’t know until the summer of 2012 is amazing. That is an extraordinary admission. It’s your job to know. You’re the chief executive of the DWP.”
Hodge also quoted from a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report into the financial controls around UC that she described as a “damning indictment”. She cited an example, highlighted by PwC, that, in some cases, authority to rubber-stamp purchases had been delegated to a personal assistant.
Devereux said: “I am agreeing this cannot be a remotely acceptable standard.”
Dr Norma Wood, interim director general of the Major Projects Authority, who also gave evidence at yesterday’s session, said suppliers in charge of the project were “out of control and financial controls were not in place”.
She also said that an MPA review found that “large chunks of the IT did not work”.
The department estimates a total of £161m of the investment could be written off and Wood said she believed it would be “at least that”.
UC director general Howard Shipley told the session that the full amount of money which will have to be written off cannot be determined until he completes a full review. He refused however to give a date, saying: “I am not going to make any commitment until I finish the work I’m doing.”