£2bn Interserve hangover

INTERSERVE was handed £660m of taxpayers’ contracts in the two years before it collapsed, despite three profit warnings.

The troubled outsourcer still had £2.1bn of public deals when it went bust on Friday.

It was handed public contracts worth £432m in 2017, and £233m last year despite profit warnings in May 2016, October 2017 and November 2018, according to Tussell, a data provider on UK government contracts. The biggest contract in 2018 was awarded by the Foreign and Commonwealth office – £66m for total facilities management services in July.

Even since December 2018, when the company announced a rescue plan to clear £ 630m in debts, Interserve has been awarded £6m in public contracts. GMB, the union for Interserve workers, said: ‘Awarding hundreds of millions in taxpayer-funded contracts to troubled outsourcing companies is the height of irresponsibility.

‘Ministers have still not taken on board the lessons from the collapse of Carillion.’