Cam Force One - Not Such Value for Money?

Back in December 2015 I wrote about the illusionary accounting procedures used to make the RAF “Voyager” air-to-air refuelling tanker fleet, operated as a Private Finance Initiative, value for money to the tax payer.  The Times today has been rummaging through the Royal and Ministerial air travel statistics.  However, far from agreeing that converting one of the surplus fleet of Voyagers to be a VIP transport would be good value for money, the Time concludes that “it does not look so cheap after all.”  The Times report is still missing the point – it is much worse than that.  As I explained in my piece on 1 December 2015, “Tanker Aircraft, PFI and the PMs Private Jet,” Royal and Ministerial users of the VIP jet only pay the operating costs.  This does, indeed, look very good value for money.  However, if the true cost of providing the aircraft in the first place, currently being paid by the MOD, every month over the 27 years of the contract, to the PFI contractor were published then the hourly rates would be truly eye-watering.  The VIP aircraft conversion, “Cam Force One,” makes the best of a one-sided contract but that does not make it value for money.