Its report on the organisation, published on 4 March 2010, says "serious errors" were made in setting it up. These included spending £9.3m to purchase new equipment, such as computer terminals, even though it inherited equipment from its predecessor organisations.
The commission started work in April 2006, taking over from the former Commission for Racial Equality, the Disability Rights Commission and the Equal Opportunities Commission.
The report says that it wrote off assets inherited from the legacy commissions at a cost of £1.4m, but could not explain why it chose not to use the equipment it inherited from those organisations.
Evidence to the committee also revealed that the former Commission for Racial Equality disposed of IT assets worth £258,000. The new commission "physically verified" £188,000 of these and disposed of them as not required. However, IT worth £70,000 "could not be found".
Edward Leigh MP, chair of the Public Accounts Committee, said: "When the Equality and Human Rights Commission came into being, at the beginning of October 2007, taking over the powers of three former commissions, just 10 directors out of the planned complement of 25 had been appointed, the management team lacked the right balance of skills, and its business plan had not been finalised. It was, to say the least, not ready for business.
"The process by which this new body had been established, at a total cost to the taxpayer of nearly £39m, was patently flawed."
Staff
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