Providing cost verification for an infrastructure project

The challenge

The client needed to manage and review multiple contracts in relation to the work completed by its contractors. Each contract came with unique clauses, such as caps on the number of hours that could be charged, and each contractor was responsible for creating the calculations for these. We quickly identified that applying a standard spreadsheet approach to reviewing these calculations wouldn't be appropriate because of the volume of data involved.

For example, one of the most complex contract clauses required us to sequentially analyse each payment application – comprising a dataset of over 34 million records – and apply the relevant contract clauses to incremental records. 

How we helped

We proposed running detailed calculations in parallel to provide the client with the assurance it needed. With the data set becoming too large for standard software packages to handle, we utilised specialist data analytics software to help assess the contractors' adherence to their contracts. 

We also automated aspects of the review of personnel costs, developing workflows that applied contract conditions to the underlying payment applications. These workflows could then be easily re-run with new data when required.

Finally, we provided recommendations to the relevant contractors as to how they might improve the accuracy of their initial calculations.

The results

We were able to enforce contract rules across the entire application for payment, enabling us to check 100% of the available information and provide comprehensive assurance to the client on how the value of allowable costs had been calculated. 

By automating the process, this also delivered a significant reduction in the review time required for each cost submission – from approximately five weeks to less than three days. Our team also identified approximately £10 million of cost as being potentially disallowable, and these have been recommended for removal.