News

The Department for Transport's (DfT) plans to streamline its internal administration procedures to increase efficiency will cost £81m rather than save money, according to a report. In addition, the failure of its 'shared services' strategy has impacted on the DfT's resources after the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) and the Driving Standards  Agency (DSA) was forced to introduce compensating controls just to maintain internal procedures.

TheNational Audit Office (NAO) says the department was being unrealistic and over-optimistic to expect its shared service centre to be introduced in just one year. Instead of making savings of £57m, the NAO says the overhaul of its HR, payroll and finance functions could end up costing £81m by 2015.

Its strategy of reducing costs for the DVLA and the DSA with a new IT system have also been questioned, because it did not follow a full competitive process for its development. Subsequently, staff received prompts in German and the system didn't recognise basic commands.

Exactly how the DVLA's role in the licensing of HGVs has been affected is unclear. However, the report says delays to invoice processing last summer meant the DSA struggled to deliver motorcycle tests.

The report notes that the DfT has made considerable  efforts to improve its management of the programme, but Tim Burr, head of the NAO adds: "It is disappointing to see a programme which aimed to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of a department leaving it on current projections some £80 million worse off." A DfT spokesman says: "As with any pioneering project on such a large scale, there will always be lessons to be learnt and we have already made improvements."