A government committee report has criticised the civil service for its role in managing contracts.

The parliamentary committee detailed that too much emphasis was being placed on short-term goals and that the civil service was not “equipped to support consistent contract management”.

The report detailed that failings stemmed from an inability to learn from past mistakes, a failure to plan for long-term change, using large suppliers instead of SMEs and a lack of management skills.

Liaison Committee chair Sir Alan Beith said: there are systemic failings in civil service contract management. We have raised specific concerns about the paucity of commercial skills, and officials feeling unable to speak truth to power.”

“We believe that a coherent analysis of the state of the civil service, and the requirements placed upon it, would help to improve governance across Whitehall, and help to eliminate the contract-management failures seen in recent years.”

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