§ Mr. Menzies CampbellTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to his answer of 24 May 2000,Official Report, column 563W, on procurement fraud, if he will state (a) against which contracts the three cases are being investigated, which were recorded against 1999–2000, stating which project within that contract is affected and (b) contracts for which the values were stated for (i) 1995–96, (ii) 1997–98 and (iii) 1998–99 were found to have been affected by fraud and from which specific area of that contract; and if he will make a statement. [126685]
§ Dr. Moonie[holding answer 22 June 2000]The three contracts reported for 1999–2000 are the subject of current Ministry of Defence Police investigations and it would be inappropriate to comment further at present. None of the three contracts relate to major procurement projects. For 1995–96 the value was stated against various jobbing orders for works at a Naval Air Station and involved the corruption of a Crown Servant by a contractor. For 1997–98 the value was stated against a suspicion that a Crown Servant had submitted false Travel and Subsistence claims with the help of a firm holding a contract for resettlement training. For 1998–99 the value was stated against a PFI consultancy contract and involved an overpayment, since recovered, arising from genuine error by the contractor.