Ministry of Defence annual losses of greater than £800m criticised as ‘completely indefensible’
A crashed F-35 stealth jet, a weak pound and a botched gas deal value the Ministry of Defence virtually £100m within the final monetary yr, official figures have revealed.
In addition, the sum of money shelled out by the division in “special payments” jumped to £114.5m within the 12 months to the tip of March in contrast with simply £5m a yr earlier.
This included payouts price £2.5m to victims of bullying, harassment and discrimination.
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A campaigning group was scathing concerning the poor use of taxpayers’ cash, which was revealed in an annual report on the MoD‘s accounts.
“The scale of these losses is utterly indefensible,” mentioned Elliot Keck, head of campaigns for TaxPayers’ Alliance.
“From huge payouts for bullying, to mistaken payments to the wrong supplier, it’s clear that something is rotten at the heart of the Ministry of Defence. Ministers must ensure that these losses are not repeated.”
The monetary hits come at a time of big value pressures on the armed forces.
An absence of funds has already prevented Ben Wallace, the defence secretary, from reversing a plan to chop the military to 73,000 troopers from a goal of 82,000 regardless of a land conflict in Europe.
Total losses incurred by the MoD over the previous monetary yr soared to £806m in contrast with £134m throughout the earlier 12-month interval, the info confirmed.
They have been led by write-offs for a collection of scrapped programmes, that are listed as “constructive losses” primarily based on their worth quite than precise money losses.
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This included ditching a plan price virtually £500m to increase the lifetime of the military’s Warrior combating autos and the scrapping of HMS Atherstone, a Royal Navy minehunter ship – recorded as a lack of practically £19m.
Actual money losses comprised virtually £2.5m, which evaporated due to a weak pound towards the greenback in relation to the acquisition of Hellfire missiles from the US.
The MoD additionally misplaced greater than £300,000 after paying cash to the improper provider for fossil fuels which couldn’t subsequently be recovered.
An additional blow to the steadiness sheets got here after an F-35B jet dropped off the launch ramp on HMS Queen Elizabeth, the navy’s flagship plane service, and ditched into the Mediterranean in November 2021. This was listed beneath the class of “stores losses” as a price of £84m.
Total shops losses, which additionally included two Watchkeeper drones, got here to £95m.
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Asked concerning the annual accounts, an MoD spokesperson mentioned: “Write-offs of assets are not cash losses and don’t cost the department.
“For instance, when decommissioning a ship, the accounts would present a ‘loss’ for the vessel, however this prices the MOD nothing. In reality, future financial savings created from not having to keep up an older vessel might be made obtainable for different priorities.”