Latest news with #costoverruns
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Ryan Transactional Risk launches environmental cost overrun insurance
Ryan Transactional Risk has introduced a new insurance product to cover the risk of cost overruns in environmental remediation and clean-up efforts. Named Ryan Transactional Risk Enviro (RTR Enviro), the product offers environmental remediation cost overrun insurance tailored for corporate transactions, divestitures, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and real estate development projects. The insurance aims to eliminate or minimise the risk of cost overruns during the remediation of known environmental contaminants, the company said. RTR Enviro utilises a remediation excess policy form combined with a defined-scope agreement to provide coverage for potential cost overruns. Ryan Transactional Risk CEO Rich Stansfield said: 'Central to Ryan Transactional Risk's belief in innovation, Ryan Transactional Risk Enviro is representative of RTR's steadfast commitment to delivering transformative products to our valued clients. 'It is a powerful addition to our suite of transactional liability products that will further differentiate the RTR brand. We look forward to the positive impact it will have for our clients.' RTR Enviro is now open for business with brokers and agencies across the US, both at a global and regional level. The underwriting team for this new product includes RTR Enviro director Cole Russo, who added: 'Ryan Transactional Risk Enviro is the leader in providing environmental remediation cost overrun insurance. We are bringing back a new and improved version of Environmental 'Cost Cap' insurance that has not been in the market for over 15 years.' Earlier this month, Ryan Specialty agreed to acquire JM Wilson, an insurance company based in Michigan. The acquisition, subject to regulatory approval, will see JM Wilson's operations become part of the RT Binding Authority specialty division of Ryan Specialty. "Ryan Transactional Risk launches environmental cost overrun insurance " was originally created and published by Life Insurance International, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
ROSS CLARK: The farce of HS2 shows how Whitehall has allowed waste and fraud to flourish on an industrial scale
Year by year, the tale of HS2 grows more wretched. The latest report on the fiasco, by James Stewart, former chief executive of Crossrail, depicts contractors behaving like a gang that tarmacs driveways taking advantage of an octogenarian widow. Endless wheezes have been devised to drive up costs, with HS2 Ltd – the government-owned company set up to handle the project – seemingly too gullible to prevent itself from being ripped off. Some of what has gone on, according to the report, may constitute outright fraud. Contracts were signed off even before aspects of the design were decided upon, effectively giving expensive additions a blank cheque. An elaborate remodelling of Euston station was abandoned, but not before £250 million was blown on design work. It beggars belief not that a firm charged £20,000 to make a model station out of Lego, but that HS2 paid it. In all, costs have been inflated by an astonishing £37 billion since 2012. To put that into context, Rachel Reeves ' eye-watering tax rises in last October's budget were supposed to raise an extra £40 billion. The culture at HS2 is prodigal and woe betide any miser who tries to spoil the party. When risk assessor Stephen Cresswell raised concerns that the ballooning HS2 bill was 'actively misrepresented', he was soon shown the door in 2022. He took the firm to an employment tribunal and was this month awarded £319,000 compensation. His condemnation afterwards was withering: 'HS2 is not an organisation that should be trusted with public money.' And yet, we give it more public money. While the official estimate for its final cost is between £45 billion and £54 billion, many fear it will cost more than £100 billion. One of the many ways in which the project was misconceived from the start was that it was needlessly designed to be the fastest train service in the world, even though all the cities it connected were less than 200 miles apart. Consequently, far more earthworks were required and far more properties had to be demolished than if the line was built for a lower speed. Even at its original estimate, HS2 was going to cost, per mile, multiples of what the high-speed line from Paris to Strasbourg – its first phase was completed in 2007 – cost. It is bizarre that then-prime minister David Cameron and chancellor George Osborne waved through HS2 as a fully taxpayer-funded project in 2012 at the same time they were taking a scythe to public services to try to close Gordon Brown's gargantuan spending deficit. In their hubris, they imagined that Whitehall would make a better fist of HS2 than was made of HS1 – the line from London St Pancras to the Channel Tunnel – which was built with private money and sailed over its budget by around 20 per cent. An HS2 worker stands in front of tunnel boring machine Karen at the Old Oak Common station box site during preparations for completing the 4.5 mile HS2 tunnelling to London Euston How could they have not noticed the lousy record of cost control in almost everything run by the state? Time and time again, we find ourselves paying through the nose for things that other countries seem able to build for far less. Just look at the Stonehenge tunnel, a billion-pound project that has been 30 years in the making but was cancelled last year because of its mushrooming costs. And the less said about a third runway at Heathrow, the better. While other countries build things, we spend billions talking about it, holding endless inquiries, backtracking and redesigning the whole thing. We are about to go through the whole tortuous process again with the construction of Sizewell C. Like HS2, the Suffolk nuclear power plant follows a similar private sector project – in this case, the Hinkley C station in Somerset, which has itself been delayed and overrun its budget. Even by nuclear reactor standards, its design is complex, as the same plants in Finland and Normandy have proved with 14-year and 12-year delays, respectively. It's little wonder that the private sector judged Sizewell to be too risky, but that has not stopped the Government ploughing taxpayer money into the scheme in the deluded belief that, yet again, the public sector will manage it better. Don't believe it. Private enterprise doesn't always manage things well, but at least it has a strong incentive to keep a lid on costs and avoid extravagance. Let spending spiral out of control and you can crash your company – taking your bonus and pension with it. In the public sector, on the other hand, you just run off to the Treasury with a begging bowl, assured that the Government has invested so much of its political capital in it that it won't be brave enough to pull the plug. That is what has happened with HS2. Contractors know that ministers are desperate to get the project over the line, and behave accordingly. We are never going to solve the problem of infrastructure unless we first tackle the culture of the public sector. Public officials need proper incentives and penalties pegged to performance, and have it drummed into them that they are spending our money, not a bottomless pit of funds. Yet introducing a dash of private-sector dynamism into Whitehall is anathema to this Labour administration more concerned with union demands that civil servants continue to run the country from their sofas. Rachel Reeves sees spending on infrastructure as key to future growth, but with more projects on the horizon – such as building small modular nuclear reactors and updating the National Grid – there's little hope that these won't become very expensive millstones around the taxpayer's neck.
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
HS2 rail line branded an 'appalling mess' and its opening is delayed past 2033 as focus switches to saving money after costs rose by £37BILLION
The disastrous HS2 rail project will not open as planned in 2033, a senior minister confirmed today, as a damning report reveals that its costs have soared by an astonishing £37billion. Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander branded the building of a new line linking London and Birmingham with the North an 'appalling mess' and told MPs she saw 'no route' to getting trains running in eight years' time. Instead the scheme will now focus on saving taxpayers' money even if it means delaying its opening, she told the Commons this afternoon. She warned that phase 1 of the project between London and Litchfield could end up being 'one of the most expensive railway lines in the world' after years of cost overruns and delays. And she warned there was evidence of sub-contractors defrauding the scheme. The project was announced in 2010 by then Conservative Transport Secretary Philip Hammond. But ever since it has been beset by controversy over its route amid ballooning costs - including spending £100million on a tunnel for bats. Reports suggest the first phase will not open to passengers until 2035 at the earliest. The Transport Secretary said she has accepted 89 recommendations from an independent review into infrastructure projects which was spearheaded by former Crossrail chief executive James Stewart. She told MPs that the word '''affordable'' was clearly not part of the HS2 lexicon', adding: 'Quite simply, there have been too many dark corners for failure to hide in. 'The ministerial taskforce set up to provide oversight of HS2 had inconsistent attendance from key ministers, including the then-transport secretary and the then-chief secretary to the Treasury. 'The Government has re-established the taskforce with full senior attendance, as per the review's recommendations – and new performance programme and shareholder boards will offer much-needed oversight and accountability. 'Secondly, the report highlights HS2 could cost the taxpayer millions more than planned. We'll stop this spiralling any further by delivering all the recommendations on cost control. 'That starts with HS2 fundamentally changing their approach to estimating costs – it includes certainty over funding which the spending review has given, and it also means HS2 working with suppliers so their contracts incentivise saving costs for taxpayers. 'As far as I'm concerned, suppliers should make a better return the more taxpayer money they save.' Mike Brown, former Transport for London (TfL) commissioner is set to become the new chairman of HS2 Limited - the company in charge of the project. The review hit out at spending, including £2billion laid out by the Tory government on the route between Birmingham, Manchester and Leeds before they scrapped it. More than £250million was also spent by HS2 Ltd on failed designs for a new station at Euston. The company was reportedly asked to provide a cheaper alternative, but ended up nearly doubling the price in the second design. Earlier this month a whistleblower who lost his job after accusing HS2 executives of fraud over the true cost of the project won more than £300,000 in compensation. Risk management expert Stephen Cresswell repeatedly raised concerns that the cost of the high speed rail line - which could end up landing the taxpayer with a bill of more than £80billion - was being 'actively misrepresented'. The consultant was told by one HS2 executive to 'disregard' scenarios he had prepared which forecast a 'significant' increase in the price to the public, an employment tribunal heard. As a result, Mr Cresswell warned that he found himself in a 'very uncomfortable position' of having a 'very different' view to the high speed rail line company's 'documented position'. The tribunal heard that in a meeting with bosses he said 'fraud had been committed because he understood fraud to be making false statement so as to secure a benefit'. After losing his job, Mr Cresswell took HS2 to an employment tribunal, claiming he had his contract terminated and been denied other work as a result of blowing the whistle. After the rail firm admitted that he had not given adequate levels of protection following his disclosures he has now been awarded £319,070 in damages. In response, campaigners said it was not to late for Labour to consider scrapping high speed rail over years of 'catastrophic mishandling'. HS2 Ltd previously said investigations into Mr Cresswell's claims found no evidence of fraud or illegal activity. Last month a DfT spokesperson said: 'We take all whistleblowing allegations seriously and it is important that individuals are given appropriate levels of protection, which clearly was not the case for Mr Cresswell.
Washington Post
05-06-2025
- Business
- Washington Post
Trump administration signals it will slash funds for long-delayed California high-speed rail project
LOS ANGELES — The Trump administration signaled Wednesday that it intends to cut off federal funding for a long-delayed California high-speed rail project plagued by multibillion-dollar cost overruns , following the release of a scathing federal report that concluded there is 'no viable path' to complete even a partial section of the line.
CTV News
27-05-2025
- Business
- CTV News
SAAQclic: ex-IT boss ‘bulls-itted' senior management
Judge Denis Gallant of the Commission d'enquête sur la gestion de la modernisation des systèmes informatiques de la Société de l'assurance automobile (SAAQ) awaits the start of the public inquiry into the failure of the SAAQclic platform in Montreal on Thursday, April 24, 2025. (Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press) Senior management at the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) was 'bullshitted' by its IT boss as he defended an extra $222 million for the deployment of the SAAQclic platform, according to a former internal auditor. The former director of the SAAQ's internal audit department, Daniel Pelletier, continued his testimony on Tuesday before the Gallant commission, which is investigating the failures of the provincial Crown corporation. Pelletier revealed that the office of then Transport Minister François Bonnardel was informed in June 2022 of future cost overruns of $222 million. Newly appointed CEO of the SAAQ, Denis Marsolais, called a meeting with a representative of the minister's office to announce the extra cost, which represented 50 per cent of the cost of the initial contract with suppliers. The SAAQ's vice-president of information technology at the time, Karl Malenfant, was also present. According to Pelletier, the meeting did not go well. 'Things got out of hand in the minister's office,' he said. Pelletier said that he had warned Marsolais that presenting such an extra would not go down well in the minister's office and that 'it was going to be hot,' since the latter believes that the contract with the consortium is capped at $458 million, as reported to him by SAAQ senior management, Pelletier asserts. Pelletier questioned the justifications put forward by Malenfant, who is in charge of the SAAQclic project, to defend the additional expenses to the contract. In his view, the suggested additions did not actually exist. Pelletier recounted what he had said to Marsolais following his meeting with the minister's office: 'Denis, you're being bullshitted' by Karl Malenfant. 'I said it to him like that. A sort of cry from the heart," Pelletier told Commissioner Denis Gallant. Marsolais lost his job in April 2023 in the wake of the failed rollout of SAAQclic, which had caused huge lineups outside branches. The SAAQ's technological modernization project could cost a minimum of more than $1.1 billion by 2027, or $500 million more than expected, according to the Auditor General. A modified final bid The final offer from the firms responsible for developing the SAAQclic platform was already raising concerns a few weeks before it was signed. The selection committee for the call for tenders suggested revising or clarifying certain points in the contract before it was signed with the LGS-IBM-SAP alliance in March 2017. Among the concerns was the number of hours for technology integration, which had been reduced by 730,000 compared with the initial bid. Three years later, the consortium calculated that the project would ultimately require 2 million hours rather than 877,000. 'Somewhere in 2020, we were in the process of discussing the possibility of handing over nearly a million more,' recalled Pelletier. In 2017, Pelletier's team had not been informed of the changes made. However, while monitoring the tendering process, the former director remembers that some members of the selection committee were 'surprised' when they discovered the content of the second bid. The consultants' 'very high' hourly rate 'for the additional work reserve' was also a point to be checked against the initial proposal. It rose from $89 to $256. 'For the same work, the competitor proposed an hourly rate of $151,' the selection committee said. The committee also pointed out that the implementation of services for the delivery of permits and registrations on the platform would be done 'without simulation.' 'This implied that there would be no prior simulations or tests. We now understand that it would certainly have been useful,' Pelletier told Commissioner Gallant. Pelletier is due to be cross-examined on Wednesday morning. This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on May 27, 2025. By Frédéric Lacroix-Couture, The Canadian Press
