Army recruits crisis is blamed on £495m outsourcing fiasco

A WATCHDOG will today deliver a damning verdict on a £495million Army outsourcing deal which has led to a military manpower crisis.

The Ministry of Defence signed the contract with Capita in 2012. But the Army is now 5,500 troops short of its 82,500 target.

The National Audit Office found “significant problems” with the project. An online

DIRE SHORTAGE British army soldier system planned for launch in 2013, only went live in November 2017, at a cost of £113million – triple the original budget. The NAO report says: “Capita has missed the Army’s annual targets for recruiting new soldiers and officers every year since 2013.”

There were online problems and recruits had to wait up to 321 days to go from application to training, with up to 47% dropping out. Capita said it had “under-estimated the complexity” of the project.