£125m lost in jail deal blunder

SAVINGS of £125million on a Carillion prison contract vanished because “someone used the wrong figures” in Whitehall, a report said.

The Independent Monitoring Board called the firm’s services at Elmley jail in Kent “a total disaster” and a “catastrophic blunder”.

It took three months to fix a major leak and the same time to replace three plastic bolts on toilet doors.

The report, before Carillion’s collapse, called its selection for the maintenance deal “surprising” as it was “known to be heavily in debt”.

It also recommended that services be taken back in-house when the contract ended. DELAYS Elmley jail