Richard Howson says departments often gave firm incorrect information about the scope of work required
Government was a poor payer and often underestimated the amount of work it awarded contractors, the former boss of Carillion has told MPs
Richard Howson said Carillion encountered "very significant discrepancies between the contracted scope and the actual scope of the Government Estate" on a number of services contracts.
In a letter to Labour MPs Rachel Reeves and Frank Field, the chairs of the inquiry into Carillion's collapse, Howson (pictured) added: "Carillion was expected to fund the extra work for months and occasionally years, before the government paid us for additional work and substantial sums were still outstanding when I left the business [September 2017].
"In the meantime, Carillion funded its suppliers on these contracts from its own funds."
Howson highlighted the prisons maintenance contract tendered by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) as an example of government's poor payment practice.
Last month, the prisons minister said Carillion proposed a deal with the Ministry of Justice to look after dozens of prisons 鈥� and knowingly lose 拢75m over its five year duration.
The claim was made by Rory Stewart who told MPs on the justice committee that the 拢200m contract the bust firm signed four years ago to look after 50 prisons was too