The cost of two new aircraft carriers being
built for the Royal Navy is expected to be almost twice the original estimate,
the government is expected to confirm this week.
In the latest budget, the Ministry of Defence is set to estimate the
cost of the two ships at more than £6bn.
The department says it is renegotiating the contract to avoid further
significant rises.
I’ve never understood how
government contracts awarded to firms to build x-y-z, or in this case aircraft
carriers, always, not every now and then, always seem to go massively, not a
little, massively over budget, it is uncanny how it happens all the time.
Surely part of the
bidding/awarding process would include firms demonstrating that they can
deliver on time and within an agreed upon budget, so why does it always end up
costing twice as much?
David Cameron is always
saying that his government will be tough on x-y-z, well maybe he should include
firms that fail to meet the clauses of major government contracts, and penalise
the firm involved, rather than just saying oh by the way this thing we told you
was going to cost £3.5bn is now going to cost £6bn, but we’re doing everything
we can to ensure that it won’t cost a penny more, and expect us to be grateful.
Can’t wait to see how
much bigger than originally promised the bill for HS2 will be, I have a strong
feeling that it will break the record for being the most over budget government
contract ever.
No comments:
Post a Comment