NAO clears Inventures PPP award

The National Audit Office (NAO) has cleared NHS Estates of any bias in the awarding of the £400m property Inventures PPP to Miller Ventures in September 2002.

There had been some speculation that the NAO report would question Miller's appointment as preferred bidder for Inventures, however this has proven to be unfounded.

NHS Estates' decision to award the contract to Miller Ventures (a consortium led by the Miller Group, which includes Miller Ventures & Construction, the Mitie Group and the Bank of Scotland) was questioned by rival bidder William Pears.

The NAO report concluded that the ranking of bids by NHS Estates  stood up to scrutiny and that there was no evidence of any conflicts of interest adversely affecting the evaluation process.

However, the NAO report did criticise Inventures management for having unrecorded conversations with bidders (at meetings of industry working groups or social events) and failing to notify NHS Estates of these conversations. The NAO also saw "no clear justification" for NHS Estates' use of a 'confidence model' to judge the bids.

NHS Estates chief executive Peter Wearmouth said: "We welcome the NAO's report and its findings, which identify no bias against the complainant."