Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that the Defence Logistics Organisation (DLO) is working hard to improve the management of helicopter logistics, but it has not yet been able to deliver fully the agreed levels of logistics support. Overall performance has been patchy. For the Joint Helicopter Command, in […]
The Ministry of Defence has done much to improve the management of the major repair and overhaul of land equipment but there is more to do, including addressing the future role and shape of its in-house provider, the Army Base Repair Organisation (ABRO), Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today. […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reporting today on the implementation of Integrated Project Teams1 (IPTs) by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) told Parliament that the teams had been introduced rapidly and successfully but needed to evolve further. He also reported that firm direction was now needed from the MoD to maintain […]
We investigated the performance of the MoD’s military flying training system
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today told Parliament that defence equipment acquisition was an inherently complex and often expensive task. Co-operation adds another layer of complexity. It also offers potential economic, military, industrial and political benefits but in the past not all of these have been secured. Recent initiatives from the […]
Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office, recognised in his Report to Parliament today the further progress which has been made by the Ministry of Defence in implementing Resource Accounts. The MoD has put in hard work and made great strides during the last year. However, Sir John has qualified his opinion on […]
Equipment cannibalisation in the Royal Navy has doubled in the past 12 years. It can be effective to meet operational needs but can increase costs and create disruption.
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reporting today on the top 20 defence equipment projects in demonstration and manufacture, told Parliament that the Ministry of Defence is meeting the technical requirements of the majority of its customers, whilst continuing to improve cost control and beginning to bring delays under control. On the […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reporting today on the top 20 defence equipment projects in demonstration and manufacture told Parliament that the Ministry of Defence is expecting to meet the technical requirements of customers but not always within cost and time. There is evidence that the Ministry of Defence has begun […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, reporting today on the top 20 defence equipment projects in demonstration and manufacture, told Parliament that the Ministry of Defence (MoD) was expecting to meet the capability requirements of its customers, and difficulties on four projects predating the introduction of Smart Acquisition had been the primary […]
The Ministry of Defence’s £2.4 billion programme to transform battlefield communications, command and control through the joint introduction of Bowman digital radios and the advanced Combat Infrastructure Platform (CIP) to an exacting 30 month timescale, has been recast. A revised programme and a further £121 million of funding have been approved to deliver the capabilities […]
Sir John Bourn, the Head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that Exercise “Saif Sareea” II, held in Oman in 2001, successfully demonstrated that the United Kingdom is capable of mounting a balanced, coherent force over a long distance. Among the United Kingdom’s allies, only the United States has shown that it could […]
The Ministry of Defence is at the forefront of best practice in some areas of contract negotiation but needs to achieve these high levels more consistently, the National Audit Office reported today. The report to Parliament by head of the NAO, Sir John Bourn, looks at the importance of good contract management and builds on […]
Sir John Bourn, Head of the National Audit Office, reported to Parliament today that although he had qualified his audit opinion on whether the Ministry of Defence’s Resource Accounts for 2002-03 presented a true and fair view, the Department had made further improvements since 2001-02. And he reported that the Department continues to make good […]
Sir John Bourn, the head of the National Audit Office, has qualified his opinion on the 1999-2000 accounts of the Ordnance Survey, the government Agency responsible for the official mapping of Great Britain. In his report to Parliament on the Agency’s first set of accounts as a Trading Fund, Sir John said that he had […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that in recent years the Ministry of Defence have produced fewer trained pilots than the Armed Services require, and some 45 a year (18 per cent) fewer than needed have entered operational service. This situation has contributed to a shortfall in operational pilots […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that the United Kingdom made a major and vital contribution to the successful NATO operation in Kosovo. And the Ministry of Defence’s financial management of their military operations in Kosovo represented a clear improvement over that achieved in Bosnia. Against the background of […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, told Parliament today that the top 25 Ministry of Defence equipment projects were, at 31 March 1999, forecast to cost £2.7 billion more than originally estimated. Including beneficial revised costings for the Eurofighter programme, cost overruns have reduced from the £2.9 billion reported in 1998. The […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today told Parliament that the Ministry of Defence (the Department) is introducing “Smart Acceptance”* procedures, which should, if applied with rigour, address weaknesses in existing processes for accepting equipment which have occasionally cost one or all of time, money and capability. For example, the report identifies […]
Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office, today reported to Parliament the results of his examination of the 1998-99 Appropriation Accounts of the Ministry of Defence (the Department). The Department have worked hard in recent years to secure better control over their expenditure, and have introduced measures that have led to important improvements and […]