Project Delivery

RPA boss says failings over scheme to pay EU farmers "will live with me for many years" – but says "almost all" outstanding 2015 payments will be made by the end of this month

Spending watchdog questions the government’s claims on SME spending, and urges departments to make sure that initiatives to improve commercial capability do not undermine attempts to support small companies

"We fully appreciate that we will need to do better in the future," says DfE perm sec Chris Wormald, as switch to new accounting method delays parliamentary scrutiny of his department's finances

DCMS permanent secretary Sue Owen says department is "just about" at the minimum levels of staffing it needs to do its job –  but says department is in a "much, much more fortunate place" than expected before the Spending Review

Public Accounts Committee points the finger at frequent leadership changes in its report on the Home Office's long-running border data troubles

Iconic Whitehall building sold as part of MoD plans to make estate savings. Department says it will be "sympathetically restored, redeveloped and re-imagined as a high quality hotel and residential apartments"

“All we’re asking is for the Met Office to be able to allocate what it needs to fund staff by industry standards,” Prospect’s Gordon Hutchinson tells CSW, as hundreds of Met Office staff set up picket lines

National Audit Office report says Cabinet Office's Fraud, Error and Debt team is "growing into a centre of expertise" – but warns departmental data is "often variable and not sufficient" to keep tabs on the true scale of public sector fraud

New report by the public spending watchdog finds "major concerns about how accountability of taxpayers' money is exercised"

Powerful Economic and Domestic Secretariat to get a new deputy director to help departments focus on longer-term trends and the impact of technology

IfG's deputy director Julian McCrae says long-awaited new plans are "little more than a laundry list of nice to haves"

Director for G-Cloud and the digital commercial programme at the Government Digital Service moving to become deputy director of the BIS digital service

As Home Office prepares to take on full responsibility for fire and rescue services from the Department for Communities and Local Government, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee say Whitehall must do more to understand the local implications of budget cuts

Home Office's top official tells CSW his ongoing review of the core department will see its headquarters "delayered" and its "management structures simplified" in a bid to better to support the frontline and learn from other departments

Transport department has improved its ability to let rail franchises, MPs say, but still lacks the capability to manage them, and does not have a “coherent strategic vision” for the rail system

Rolling out text alerts, sorting out "crap" government IT, cleaning up data, and trying to recruit skilled people when the money's tight — there's plenty going on in the world of government digital, as Matt Foster found at the Government Digital Service's annual gathering

As Cabinet Office launches new government-wide set of commercial standards, civil service chief executive John Manzoni talks up recruitment of contract experts – and explains tricky balancing act of supporting departments "in an intelligent, helpful, and yet challenging way"

Government hails major savings on government estate since 2010 and sets out plans to go further - but the PCS union warns "vital local services" will be undermined

Shadow Cabinet Office minister Louise Haigh says BIS showed "lack of empathy" in St Paul’s Place closure announcement

Reducing reliance on consultants and temps will require "much more fundamental workforce transformation" than seen so far, civil service chief John Manzoni tells MPs. But he says the organisation is "on the road" to addressing the problem

Report by the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs Committee says that final round of funding to the beleaguered youth charity — subject to a warning from then-Cabinet Office perm sec Richard Heaton — "should not have been authorised"

Chief executive of the Infrastructure and Projects Watchdog seeks to reassure MPs after merger with Treasury unit – and John Manzoni says new organisation will have more "teeth"

Report by MPs says Eurostar sale was managed well but that government used "over cautious assumptions" and should do more to build in-house corporate finance knowledge

Project "Ocean Liner" reportedly mulls insourcing and says there is "no consistent advice" for dealing with IT challenges across government