Recommendation 18

Government organisations operate with annual maintenance budgets. Transferring unspent funds to the following year is often not easy and requires HM Treasury’s permission. Departments respond to annual budgets by planning on a yearly basis. They may split contracts into smaller chunks, rather than longer, better value contracts. This allows departments to spend allocated funds before the year end, at which point any remaining money would be lost.31 The Cabinet Office noted that there is nothing stopping departments from planning for the longer term.32 Additionally, the NAO report includes the example of HM Revenue and Customs planning over two years for property related projects.33 There are also examples of departments making longer–term asset management plans, such as HM Courts and Tribunals Service’s estates strategy over the next 5 and 10 years.34