By Helen Mooney
15 October 2009
Environment officials have shown ‘scant regard’ for protecting public money in their administration and management of the farmers’ payment scheme in England, the National Audit Office has said.
The watchdog’s second progress report on the administration of the European Union scheme, published on October 15, found that a catalogue of failures by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Payments Agency meant that the scheme was not value for money.
The NAO found that the RPA’s IT system did not meet the needs of the scheme and that the cost of processing claims, already very high, had continued to increase. The average cost per claim has increased by 22% since 2005 to £1,743.
It said that the cost of correcting earlier mistakes in processing was £119m, that progress in recovering overpayments had been slow and that the agency did not have a clear picture of the extent of overpayments, which are estimated to be between £55m and £90m.
NAO head Amyas Morse said: ‘There are still significant issues to be resolved. There has been a serious lack of attention to the protection of taxpayers’ interests over the administration of the scheme.
‘There has been a lack of senior management ownership of the scheme in the RPA and Defra, even though the risks were previously highlighted by the Committee of Public Accounts.
‘Defra should urgently address the risks to ongoing IT system support and the inaccuracy of the scheme’s data, explore alternative payment systems and resolve the ongoing management issues.’
15 October 2009
Environment officials have shown ‘scant regard’ for protecting public money in their administration and management of the farmers’ payment scheme in England, the National Audit Office has said.
The watchdog’s second progress report on the administration of the European Union scheme, published on October 15, found that a catalogue of failures by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Rural Payments Agency meant that the scheme was not value for money.
The NAO found that the RPA’s IT system did not meet the needs of the scheme and that the cost of processing claims, already very high, had continued to increase. The average cost per claim has increased by 22% since 2005 to £1,743.
It said that the cost of correcting earlier mistakes in processing was £119m, that progress in recovering overpayments had been slow and that the agency did not have a clear picture of the extent of overpayments, which are estimated to be between £55m and £90m.
NAO head Amyas Morse said: ‘There are still significant issues to be resolved. There has been a serious lack of attention to the protection of taxpayers’ interests over the administration of the scheme.
‘There has been a lack of senior management ownership of the scheme in the RPA and Defra, even though the risks were previously highlighted by the Committee of Public Accounts.
‘Defra should urgently address the risks to ongoing IT system support and the inaccuracy of the scheme’s data, explore alternative payment systems and resolve the ongoing management issues.’
