Fri Dec 15, 2017 10:24 am
#1577489
According to MP's on the Public Accounts Committee HS2 Ltd, the company running the HS2 project, stands accused of "a shocking waste of taxpayers money", the comment has been made in relation to redundancy payments paid by HS2 when they relocated from London to Birmingham and shed 94 jobs. The budget for the payments was set at £1m, it seems that a total of £2.76m was paid out as a result of enhanced terms that were actually paid.
Other comments made by the committee about the performance of HS2 in relation to this matter were "weak internal processes", "a serious error" and "a lack of basic financial controls". As I understand it this committee is an all party committee therefore the comments can be seen as objective and should not be subject to political bias in terms of party political point scoring.
Now, I don't know how typical I am in terms of my knowledge of the HS2 project but this is what I understand at the moment. First and foremost its going to be eye wateringly expensive, mention of the project evokes strong feelings both fore and against it depending on who you talk to, I can't begin to understand how a project of this scale is organised and managed; how budgets are planned and spending is managed is beyond me but it is obviously fundamental to the success of the project.
Now I understand that the comments quoted in this storey relates to the specific matter of the redundancy payments. My question is, should I (we) be worried that this poor level of performance can be extrapolated and poses a risk the success of the project as a whole?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42358892
Other comments made by the committee about the performance of HS2 in relation to this matter were "weak internal processes", "a serious error" and "a lack of basic financial controls". As I understand it this committee is an all party committee therefore the comments can be seen as objective and should not be subject to political bias in terms of party political point scoring.
Now, I don't know how typical I am in terms of my knowledge of the HS2 project but this is what I understand at the moment. First and foremost its going to be eye wateringly expensive, mention of the project evokes strong feelings both fore and against it depending on who you talk to, I can't begin to understand how a project of this scale is organised and managed; how budgets are planned and spending is managed is beyond me but it is obviously fundamental to the success of the project.
Now I understand that the comments quoted in this storey relates to the specific matter of the redundancy payments. My question is, should I (we) be worried that this poor level of performance can be extrapolated and poses a risk the success of the project as a whole?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-42358892