Building an economy aircraft carrier could save £1bn, Cameron to ...The Guardian Tues 5 Oct 2010
......The Guardian has also learned that a £14bn PFI project – one of the largest ever – to finance a military training academy in Wales is likely to be scrapped as part of the strategic defence review, to be published later this month.
The new centre at a 1,000-acre site near Barry is intended to consolidate the three armed services' existing training facilities around the country, able to cater for up to 3,000 students at any one time.
The 30-year contract, awarded to defence firm Qinetiq and US firm Raytheon, covers staff, catering and maintenance. But the cost has already increased from the original estimate of £12bn to a figure closer to £14bn, while the government has made clear its dislike of PFI-style contracts.
One senior defence source described its future as "pretty bleak" and its fate could also be sealed at the national security council meeting. Officials say the work by the consortium – already costing the MoD more than £80m – has not provided what is required.
A spokesman for the consortium argued that it would be "illogical" to scrap the new centre because it would free up 1,200 sailors, soldiers and airmen involved in the military's existing training programme. The first aircraft carrier, which Cameron at the weekend indicated was going ahead, will initially be equipped with ageing Harriers. Each carrier was supposed to be equipped with 69 new Joint Strike Fighters, but the government could slash this number by at least half to make further savings. Each fighter is now estimated to cost at least £100m, a 50% increase, and the price is still rising.
Why has there not been open discussion and monitoring of this project by Welsh Politicians who promoted this project like lemmings even though the information was blatantly misleading. The jobs figure was always a myth, although the 5,000 lie was repeated again and again by politicians and the media -the BBC news just the other day.Do they never learn?
What of the Aerospace Business part of the St Athan development? Again Tens of £millions spent with no returns. The Red Dragon project, to provide MOD aircraft servicing and refits, collapsed with nothing to replace it. Gullible Ministers and over-bullish WDA. The “advanced aerospace business” park, promoted as “capable of generating several thousand skilled and high paid jobs in the long term” has dwindled to almost nothing. Despite the recession and low-carbon economy policy, WAG at the CPO Inquiry in Janauary 2010 was still banking on expanding “aerospace” - a term covering military hardware – including exports from the likes of Raytheon and Qinetiq.
Information on latest WAG spending from a Freedom of Information Request 30th Sept
Perhaps WAG could stop wasting money -Total £5,306,772.81 - Spending on Consultants and companies on the gravy train!! Not including WAG staff costs etc.
St Athan Development Scheme *
Expenditure on External Advisers & Services - 1st April 2007 to 30th June 2010
Avionic Services , W.S. Atkins - Bay Associates - Capita - David Clements - Ecology -
Environment Agency - Enquinn Environmental - Enviros - Geldards - Halcrow - D & S -
Drivas Jonas - King Sturge - Bruton Knowles - Lewis & Lewis - MBP Marketing
- Mott Macdonald - MSS Consulting - OPUS - Parsons Brinckerhoff -
A. Porten - Production Support - Ramboll - Watts & Morgan - Welsh Water -
Western Power - White Young Green - Willdig Lamie - RG & RB Williams - 3Di
"Exclusive of Vat" Where Applicable.
* Aerospace Business Park & Defence Technical College Associated Assembly Government Costs
Question 3 In addition the same document talks of `in order to prepare and progress this Development Brief, a series of working groups has been established under a joint steering group consisting of Vale of Glamorgan officers, and representatives of WAG, Education and Learning Wales (ELWa), and Metrix. These Working Groups have been meeting regularly and have discussed planning, transportation, training, and quality of life issues in the context of the St Athan proposals.' Who are these representatives of WAG and who is paying them?
Response
These working groups were established during the early part of 2006 specifically to help with the preparation of the St Athan Development Brief and to support the case for St Athan as the location of choice for the MoD DTR programme. These working groups no longer exist.
Representatives of the Assembly Government who attended these working group meetings were either permanent senior officials from the relevant departments such as the Head of Transport or relevant officials from partner public agencies such as the WDA Project Director, WDA Head of Planning, WDA Project Manager, WDA Senior Roads Engineer, ELWA Head of Skills Development. These officials were paid by their respective employers, the Assembly Government, WDA or ELWA.
Some of these working groups included external professional advisers retained and paid by the Assembly Government to advise on master planning as outlined in Appendix 1.
Showing posts with label 12bn mod project. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 12bn mod project. Show all posts
21/05/2010
Ieuan Wyn Abuses his position
St Athan CPO Decision
When will the Inspectors report on the draft St Athan Compulsory Purchase Order be published and when will a final decision on the Compulsory Purchase order be made?
Bearing in mind that the whole St Athan project has been severely scaled down, which removes all logic for building a new college from scratch, evidence given to the public inquiry by MoD officials revealed the capacity of the proposed college to have been scaled back from 6,000 trainees to 2,700.
We were told on Monday 17 May that the Inspectors report had not gone to the Minister but on Thursday that it had indeed gone to the ‘Welsh ministers’ and ‘you will be provided with a copy as you requested, when the Welsh Ministers have considered the matter and reached their decision’ Who actually decides, Jane Davidson?
On Monday they told us that they didn’t know which minister to send it to! Are they are trying to cover themselves, as they can't decide on CPOs as necessary in the public interest if the DTC is not to proceed? Or has Persimmons been bought off, so avoiding a CPO decision?
It's unfair if the applicant Ieuan Wyn has seen the report - or participated in any decisions on when and whether to grant the CPOs. The applicant is abusing a privileged position!
Ieuan Wyn Jones Plaid Cymru (minister for the Economy and Transport) in a letter dated May 5 said “under the Compulsory Purchase by Ministers (Inquiries Procedure) Rules 19994 (SI 1994 No 3264) an Inspectors report is normally published at the same time as the issue of a decision by Welsh Ministers on whether or not to make the order. The Inspectors Report on the draft Compulsory Purchase Order was received on March 26 and is currently under consideration. Although there is no specific time limit for such decisions to be made, we hope to publish a decision before the summer recess, once the Ministry of Defence has announced whether or not it is proceeding with the Defence Technical College
Is this in line with the rules? Rules that were drawn up by the Westminster Government 5 years before the establishment of the Assembly and some 10 years before the Freedom of Information Act. The public have the right to know. Shame on you Ieuan Wyn Jones! Keep Raytheon out of Wales!
Notes
CPO - compulsory land purchase for access roads to a proposed tri-service college at St Athan.
Then Mark Pritchard, Conservative MP for the Wrekin, obtained an MOD memo which stated “Currently there is a £1.3 billion affordability issue in the programme”. The programme referred to is the Defence Training Review (DTR) programme, the official name for the contract Metrix is bidding for.
Affordability
By the start of 2009, the project looked so unviable that Ministers had to quietly slip an “unnumbered command paper” through the Commons providing Metrix with a £32 million risk guarantee to prevent the partnership going ‘belly up’.
The leaked memo indicates that central to Metrix’s problems is the price of borrowing money. Supporters of PPPs, which usually involve bank borrowing, frequently refer to such deals as ‘more efficient’ than schemes funded directly through tax revenue. But the memo states Metrix has a problem “borrowing money at a reasonable rate”. The Swiss UBS bank has down-rated its investment advice on Metrix, suggesting its a very high risk venture.
and another thing the people of Wales are not aware that the noise levels will be unacceptable to local residents or the track vehicles ...tanks and such. Or that MoD added to the planning permission for a golf course and a field exercise area!.....could go on forever!!
25/02/2009
State underwrites St Athan defence’s PFI project
Please see the attached which is a copy of document placed before the House of Commons with regards DTR. Mark Pritchard MP tabled an objection today and therefore there will have to be a further investigation prior to this going ahead. It would seem that the Department are getting ever more desperate to somehow give Metrix even more funding to enable them progress. Its looks like they were hoping to sneak this through..... This should be some serious debate asking if this programme should continue if we keep having to bail out Metrix and give them ever more time to try and balance the books to make it look palatable.
Ministry of Defence spends another ￡40m on ailing contract Daily Mail
The Defence Training Review (DTR) is the government's largest private finance deal. It aims to consolidate the MoD's training bases from 30 to about ten,...
Financial Times -London ,England ,UK
Under the deal, taxpayers will underwrite a further £32m of risk in order to push through the Defence Training Review, theUK
The Defence Training Review (DTR) is the government's largest private finance deal. It aims to consolidate the MoD's training bases from 30 to about ten,...
Details that the taxpayer has underwritten almost £50million in investment in the project to outsource soldier training even before a brick has been laid has angered the Tories.
Mark Pritchard, MP for The Wrekin and secretary of the Conservative defence committee, has written to the Financial Secretary to the Treasury, Stephen Timms MP, asking him to explain the rising costs.
He said: 'There are serious underlying funding problems in the DTR project and it is incumbent on ministers, given the increased level of taxpayer money involved, to make an early statement on the reasons and justification for these new funds.'
...State underwrites UK defence’s PFI projectFinancial Times -
Under the deal, taxpayers will underwrite a further £32m of risk in order to push through the Defence Training Review, the
State underwrites UK
By Alex Barker, Political Correspondent Published: February 25 2009 02:19 |
Ministers have quietly offered contractors bigger state guarantees as a means of rescuing the £12bn ($17bn) private finance project to centralise the military’s training, the Financial Times has learnt.
Under the deal, taxpayers will underwrite a further £32m of risk in order to push through the Defence Training Review, the
The offer was made as the government prepares to intervene to save a clutch of big private finance deals facing funding difficulties, in areas from school building to road construction.
Qinetiq, the defence group, is the lead contractor for DTR, a giant project designed to centralise all non-military technical training for army, navy and air force personnel in one academy in
The 25-year deal, which has seen significant cost increases, suffered a big setback late last year after an outsourcing arm of Land Securitieswithdrew from the process.
The doubts over its future were partly allayed when Sodexo, the French contract caterer, stepped in to replace Trillium in the Metrix consortium, which was awarded the contract to build and run the academy.
Fresh offers to underwrite parts of the deal, specifically on the design and planning of the new centre, appear to have removed the remaining sticking points.
In an “unnumbered command paper” slipped out to the Commons, the Ministry of Defence said fresh guarantees could be exercised only if it delayed the project. It said the Treasury had approved the plan in principle. The MoD said: “Underwriting the costs of this project is a sensible and prudent business practice.”
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
MOD Document
DEPARTMENTAL
It is normal practice, when a Government Department proposes to undertake a contingent liability in excess of £250,000 for which there is no specific statutory authority, for the Department concerned to present to Parliament a
The Defence Training Review Package 1 Project is a large and complex Private Finance Initiative project, with the Metrix Consortium as Preferred Bidder. It seeks to transform the way the Ministry of Defence (MoD) delivers specialist engineering and communications and information systems training on a Defence wide basis to support better the future needs of the Armed Forces.
In January 2008, a
In order to maintain this momentum a second package of risk reduction activity valued at £40.40M is proposed. This work, of which £32.67M will be underwritten by the MoD, is predominantly focused around the design and planning of the estate solution at St Athan, and further development of the training solution. By undertaking these activities ahead of the main investment point, it will be possible for Metrix to make a planning submission in May 2009 (which is essential if construction at St Athan is to start on time in August 2010). Further development of the training solution will build customer confidence in the training solution, allowing quicker and more efficient drawdown of military manpower after Financial Close.
The costs of these risk reduction activities are to be recovered through the tendered contract and are already captured within the Metrix price. Provided that the Programme reaches Financial Close, the costs will be paid from within the planned budget at no additional charge to MoD. The MoD will only become liable to reimburse the underwritten value of these costs if there is a failure to achieve Financial Close for a reason not attributable to Metrix. This commitment will be subject to a clear Limit of Liability, in total and by specific activity area, with any reimbursement of costs subject to full cost analysis supported by open book provisions. Should this liability be called, provision for any payment will be sought through the normal Supply procedure.
The Treasury has approved the proposal in principle. If, during the period of fourteen Parliamentary sitting days beginning on the date on which this
DTR costs could rise by a further £1bn
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
The cost of the Defence Training Review (DTR) may rise by a further £1bn Defence Management has learned. In a report that first appeared in the South Wales Echo, the cost of the project was listed as £13bn, an increase of £1bn since the last officials figures on the DTR were released late last year.
Sodexo Takes Equity Share in £12bn DTR
PPP Focus.com,
The 30-year £12 billion project is the
New partner found for largest-ever PFI
New Partner for UK Outsourcing Training Consortium
Metrix: a first look into the future
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