Somebody at Politico (HERE) has identified a government contract with the management consultants McKinsey for a computer system to manage the cross departmental progress of Brexit. The contract (HERE) is worth £1.9 million and covers something called the EPM or Enterprise Project Management system. Some of the work was sub contracted to Bechtel. The idea was to get a system that would help civil servants working on Brexit planning. The contract was awarded in April 2017 for completion last October. One imagines it is now up and running.
The purpose of the system is described in section 1.1 - page 4:
As the customer [DEXEU] moves from a policy development to a policy delivery stage there is a significant portfolio management challenge . The customer is seeking external, expert support to design and set up this system and then support the operation and interrogation of the system.
Mckinsey/Bechtel were to provide:
"...both the technical Enterprise Project Management (EPM) System and strategic and operational (PMO) personnel resource to deliver this requirement".
However, I see few signs of policy delivery although the other day the Department of Transport announced changes (HERE) to the way Operation Stack is to be managed in the event of any "cross-Channel disruption". The idea is to "keep Kent moving". Whatever can they be worried about? Operation Stack is the system for queuing vehicles waiting to get in to Dover or Folkestone when problems arise. Brexit isn't mentioned but you would need to be completely naive to think this had nothing to do with leaving the EU. As far as I can see this is the only example of "policy delivery" if indeed that's what it is.
And Kent has a population just under 2 million so I imagine keeping it moving is quite important.
The McKinsey contract, as Politico point out, surprisingly (or perhaps not) and amusingly calls for people who can operate under "considerable ambiguity" (page 6, item 1.13.2) which is Whitehall code for nobody knows what's going on.
But if you check Hansard for answers to written questions concerning EU matters (HERE), the so-called ambiguity is cleared up. Nobody really does know what's going on! Answer after answer is a bland non committal one, batting away the desperate need for clarity on all kinds of post Brexit issues. Where policy and direction should be is just a blank.
The system has been operational for over six months. What policy announcements have we had? I don't think we've moved out of policy decisions or development yet. In fact the PM only this week was said to be still outlining "hopes" on the future customs arrangements. So we have a planning system in place, all we need now is a plan!
