Royal Household beats KPI targets

The Royal Household met or bettered 11 of its 15 construction key performance indicators in the year to 31 March 2003.The speed of payments to suppliers was better than the target, but not quite as good as the previous year: 87% of suppliers were paid within 30 days of receipt of invoice, 95% within 40 days and 98% within 50 days, compared with targets of 85%, 95% and 97%.The Royal Household set itself a target of 70% of projects with a construction cost of £25,000 or more completing with an overrun of no more than 5% of the tender amount. It beat this target, registering a score of 75%.However, the tougher target of 100% of projects with a construction cost of £25,000 or more completing with an overrun of no more than 10% of the tender price was missed - the Royal Household posted a score of 96%.The repointing of the Queen's Tower at Windsor overran by more than 10% of the tender price because the work required was found to be "far in excess of initial estimates following discussions with English Heritage".Fees and other indirect costs were 19.2% of total construction costs, worse than the target of 18%. This was due to fees for the preparation of tender packages and for design work for the Clarence House and Staff Welfare area at Buckingham Palace projects.The Royal Household's total spend on construction increased by 7.1% to 16.6m. Six projects with costs of £150,000 or more were completed or were in progress during 2002/03.Repair costs resulting from the fire that broke out at Buckingham Palace during the Jubilee weekend last year amounted to £75,000.