Recommendation 11

We observed that the above arrangements appeared favourable to PwC and that it was not unheard of for government to appoint consultants to implement the advice they have given and for the scope of such implementation work, and therefore its costs, to increase subsequently. The Department pointed out that it had originally appointed PwC as the managed service provider after an open procurement which PwC had won after meeting the required criteria.19 It, not PwC, had then increased the scope of the work, as it wanted the system to have greater functionality as this was integral to its ability to manage the loan book in a professional way.20 It also said that it was not sure that it could have procured a bespoke, off–the–shelf loan management system for this loan book.21 The Department assured us that, while the intellectual property rights to the underlying software system were owned by Singlify, delivery of the loan management system had been set up in such a way that it could procure a different party to provide the system in future.22