The
head of the UK’s public spending watchdog has said he has seen no
evidence to date that the Rwanda scheme is good value for money.
Gareth
Davies, the chief of the National Audit Office, has announced his teams
will investigate how much the Home Office is spending now and into future years.
His
decision is a significant intervention in an ongoing row between MPs and the department
over the true costs of the Rwanda plan.
On
Monday, MPs on the Public Accounts Committee – which scrutinises whether
government is spending money wisely – clashed with the Home Office’s top
official over how much it was spending.
So
far, £290m has either been handed over to
Rwanda, or will be soon, but the Home Office Permanent Secretary Sir Matthew Rycroft
refused to say how much more would be spent, saying the
detail was commercial confidential.
This
afternoon the National Audit Office said it would now investigate and report its findings back to Parliament.
“I
do not think it possible to conclude on value for money at this stage, given
that this rests on the deterrent effect of the scheme,” Davies told MPs in a
letter.
Dame
Diana Johnson and Dame Meg Hillier, the chairs of the Home Affairs Public
Accounts Committee respectively, said in a joint statement that they welcomed
the NAO’s intervention because Parliament needed to know the true costs.
The
NAO report is expected to be “factual”, meaning it won’t judge whether the cash
has been wasted.