The National Audit Office [NAO] is intended to monitor public expenditure. However it is not beyond misleading parliament in order to support government policy and cover up the financial cost of PFI.
The anomaly was discovered by the Public Accounts Committee which pointed out that an NAO report presented to parliament into the efficiency of the expensive local improvement finance trusts [LIFT] in building new temporary primary care facilities did not take into account comparisons with non-PFI alternatives as it is supposed to. The NAO representative declared at the time that the public sector facilities it was compared with did not represent a reasonable comparison because cost is not the only gauge of value for money.
Upon further inquiries however the NAO admitted that no such comparisons actually exist; and also that the NAO’s use of the financial consultant Operis to advise it on the deal was in fact a conflict of interest because Operis advises banks on financing…er… LIFT projects.
Source:
In the Back, Private Eye, no. 1149, 6-19 January 2006.
