Government negotiations with major suppliers – a progress report

by Peter Smith on July 29, 2010

I’ve spoken to a couple of very well informed people this week about the Government initiative to “renegotiate key government contracts to release savings”.
They bear out the conclusion I’ve been coming to – this is a purely political “we need to be seen to be doing something” initiative. No-one in Government procurement I’ve spoken to [...]

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Police contract compliance – “you could go to prison for that mate”

by Peter Smith on July 28, 2010

“Policing in the 21st Century”, the report on the future of the Police Service, makes interesting reading on a number of fronts, and procurement is right up there as one of the most significant. The headlines have focused on the likely abolition of the National Policing Improvement Agency (NPIA). I acted as the [...]

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Dell and the ‘Intel cookie jar’

July 27, 2010

Just caught up with this via Spend Matters.  As the Economist report says,
“For years, Dell’s seemingly magical power to squeeze efficiencies out of its supply chain and drive down costs made it a darling of the financial markets.”
It is now clear that this was in no small measure achieved by using payments from [...]

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What is happening to OGC?

July 27, 2010

It is now six weeks since the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) was moved from Treasury into the Cabinet Office’s Efficiency and Reform Group (ERG), and there is still no clarity on its future.  I hear that in some areas, people are busy; obviously the collaborative procurement people are involved with the ‘centralising procurement across [...]

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An exhausting cup of coffee with Luke Spikes (Spikes Cavell)

July 26, 2010

I have been hearing about Spikes Cavell for 2 or 3 years now, mainly around public sector procurement.  My initial sense was that they were consultants; but then their name kept popping up in the context of Spend Analysis, particularly in the wider public sector context (local authorities primarily).
It hadn’t really occurred to me that [...]

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The Telegraph realises that Francis Maude is important

July 26, 2010

It’s good to see the national press (the Telegraph) catching up with what we said here weeks ago; Francis Maude has collected a very impressive range of responsibilities into the Cabinet Office and his Eficiency and Reform group, including some with huge implications for public procurement.
We said this a month ago: “Francis Maude will have [...]

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NAO publishes Firebuy report

July 25, 2010

Firebuy is the procurement body set up to drive collaboration and collaborative contracts across the Fire Services in the UK.  This NAO report is one I can’t say too much about for confidentiality reasons I’m afraid; but it is an interesting read and highlights the issues with collaborative procurement in the public sector, particularly [...]

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July Music Review

July 24, 2010

It is time for another monthly music review, and it has been yet another strong month with three releases that will all contend for my top 20 end of year lists; two of them already looking like certainties.
Serotonin is the Mystery Jets’ third album.  In a sense, each has been more mainstream than the last, [...]

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Don’t get sued – Public Procurement Lawyers issue evaluation guidance

July 24, 2010

The Procurement Lawyers’ Association (I know what you’re thinking -  bet they have wild parties!) have issued a very interesting document – “Issues in evaluating public sector tenders”.
One particular area of uncertainty revolves around how one evaluates and scores ‘price’ (or ‘whole life cost’) as part of the evaluation.  What does a ‘50% weighting for [...]

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NAO report says efficiency savings don’t add up

July 23, 2010

The NAO has published a report on the savings declared by three more Government Departments (Revenue & Customs, MOD and Education) in procurement and other areas as part of the Treasury’s value for money savings programme (designed to run from 2008 – 2011).
To no-one’s great surprise, they find that only 38% of declared savings are [...]

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