MPs demand cause of delays in farming subsidies

Supplier Accenture to give evidence to select committee next week

Accenture will give evidence to MPs on Monday about the cause of the Rural Payments Agency’s (RPA’s) failure to pay out vital subsidies to British farmers on time.

Company representatives will be cross-examined over the failure, which resulted in agency chief executive Johnston McNeil being removed from his post.

It follows the committee’s grilling this week of Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs secretary Helen Ghosh.

Accenture is responsible for the systems on which RPA payouts depend. At an earlier hearing in January the committee was told contract costs more than doubled to £37m. RPA officials said the over-run resulted from EU policy changes after the start of the project.

Farmers are receiving interim payouts based on 80 per cent of claims after the RPA abandoned assertions that arrangements were working perfectly and admitted they had broken down.

Committee member and MP David Taylor says it is not clear what caused the collapse. ‘I shall be pressing Accenture very hard next week,’ he said.

Ghosh said an underestimated number of claims, and shortcomings with the claim verification system, were to blame. She admitted being warned of difficulties, but said the system had passed Gateway reviews.

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