The Ministry of Defence has a long history of wasting taxpayers’ money

While Britain may boast one of the most professional and brave armed forces in the world, they seem to be lions equipped by donkeys, writes Sean O’Grady

Excessive vibrations in Ajax tanks mean that crews are limited to 90 minutes inside them at a time (Ministry of Defence)

The Public Accounts Committee of the House of Commons is the oldest and most prestigious of the many select committees. It can trace its lineage back to 1862 and was the brainchild of WE Gladstone. The Grand Old Man of British politics bequeathed a grand old committee, whose close work with the National Audit Office and formidable reputation have exposed official idiocy and waste of all kinds.

Unfortunately, one of the most frequent subjects of the PAC’s attentions had been incompetence by the Ministry of Defence in its procurement programmes. The latest PAC report is as damning as any in its verdict on recent activities by the MoD, most notably the failure after almost two decades and some £5.5bn to develop and deploy a new “family” of light-armoured vehicles and smaller tanks, latterly known as the Ajax programme. Despite all the delays and all the resources devoted to it, not a single vehicle has been put into continuous service, and there is no date for when this might even happen.

It is part of a long pattern of failures on the part of the MoD and its suppliers. As the PAC states: “There have been numerous reviews of defence procurement over the past 35 years, which have provided the department with opportunities to take stock and learn from experience. We are therefore extremely disappointed and frustrated by the continued poor track record of the department and its suppliers – including significant net delays of 21 years across the programmes most recently examined by the National Audit Office – and by wastage of taxpayers’ money running into the billions.”