This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/dec/09/farmer-payment-scheme-undermined-by-whitehall-rifts-mps-to-be-told

The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 0 Version 1
Farmer payment scheme undermined by Whitehall rifts, MPs to be told Farmer payment scheme undermined by Whitehall rifts, MPs to be told
(about 5 hours later)
A government programme to deliver £1.8bn of EU payments to farmers has been undermined by rifts between senior civil servants, MPs will hear on Wednesday. The public accounts committee will question officials over “persistent rows” between staff from the Rural Payments Agency and the Government Digital Service at a hearing. It follows the release last week of a highly critical report from the National Audit Office (NAO), which found that the rows damaged the delivery of common agricultural policy money to farmers. A new payment system was scrapped in March after its failure to allow farmers to input their data. Instead the system returned to a manual paper-based system. The government is expected to face EU fines of hundreds of millions of pounds because of the payment system’s failings. MPs will question officials from the Rural Payments Agency and the Government Digital Service about the NAO’s findings, which highlighted “deep and persistent personal rifts at senior levels” that resulted in “personal confrontations”. At one point, ministers were forced to intervene to quell a row between officials, the NAO report said. The new process, called Rural Payments, was created in 2012 to address failings in how the government previously delivered subsidy payments. However, the scheme, developed between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Rural Payments Agency and the Government Digital Service, had originally been too narrow in scope, auditors said. It focused mainly on procuring IT systems and did not set out the wider organisational transformation required to improve payments to about 88,000 farmers and agents. A government programme to deliver £1.8bn of EU payments to farmers has been undermined by rifts between senior civil servants, MPs will hear on Wednesday.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said “significant challenges” remained for the programme. “The Department [for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs], the Rural Payments Agency and Government Digital Service have not worked together effectively to deliver the common agricultural policy delivery programme. There are serious lessons in this episode for all three. “This means that costs have increased and systems functionality has not improved at the rate expected, either in the back office or the user-facing front end. This does not represent value for money at this stage.” The public accounts committee will question officials over “persistent rows” between staff from the Rural Payments Agency and the Government Digital Service at a hearing.
It follows the release last week of a highly critical report from the National Audit Office (NAO), which found that the rows damaged the delivery of common agricultural policy money to farmers.
A major component of a new payment system was suspended in March over its failure to allow farmers to input their data. Instead the system returned to a manual paper-based system.
The government is expected to face EU fines of hundreds of millions of pounds because of the payment system’s failings.
MPs will question officials from the Rural Payments Agency and the Government Digital Service about the NAO’s findings, which highlighted “deep and persistent personal rifts at senior levels” that resulted in “personal confrontations”.
At one point, ministers were forced to intervene to quell a row between officials, the NAO report said.
The new process, called Rural Payments, was created in 2012 to address failings in how the government previously delivered subsidy payments.
However, the scheme, developed between the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Rural Payments Agency and the Government Digital Service, had originally been too narrow in scope, auditors said.
It focused mainly on procuring IT systems and did not set out the wider organisational transformation required to improve payments to about 88,000 farmers and agents.
Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said “significant challenges” remained for the programme.
“The Department [for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs], the Rural Payments Agency and Government Digital Service have not worked together effectively to deliver the common agricultural policy delivery programme. There are serious lessons in this episode for all three.
“This means that costs have increased and systems functionality has not improved at the rate expected, either in the back office or the user-facing front end. This does not represent value for money at this stage.”