Category Archives: procurement

Let’s Adopt Public Service Ethos-Based Public Procurement And Contracting

The General Election discussion on the role of businesses in the delivery of public services should be welcomed by those committed to public service. Labour has announced that it would want to cap the pay of senior executives of companies that contract with the Government – and one assumes the wider public sector. It would… Read More...

The Political Parties Should Commit To An Enquiry Into Public Service Outsourcing

It is both interesting and encouraging that senior politicians have already spoken about public sector outsourcing and contracting in the first week of the 2017 General Election. Jeremy Corbyn has committed to using public procurement to drive up standards of employment, ensure trade union membership for employees and timely payments to suppliers especially smaller companies,… Read More...

Public procurement should be delivering opportunities for people with disabilities

Reading the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ)’s report on employment for people with disabilities (or perhaps more aptly ‘lack of employment for people with disabilities’) Rethinking Disability Work http://www.centreforsocialjustice.org.uk/core/wp-, I was reminded that although we have made progress in this country in terms of rights for people with disabilities there is a long, long way… Read More...

Public procurement should be proportionate to risks – not fuel insatiable bureaucratic appetites

They should safeguard public interests and ensure public value, which should include ensuring value for money is secured. They should also guarantee probity and ethical standards. And they should, in my view, promote wider public policy including social, economic and environmental goals. They are also vital for ensuring equity, fairness and, where appropriate, competition between… Read More...

John Tizard: Procuring from the VCSE is different from procuring from major corporates

How often do I hear from voluntary and community organisations and small social enterprises (VCSE) that they are scarred and damaged by incredibly bureaucratic public procurement processes? The short answer is “far too often”! I find this both disappointing and frustrating. The position has with a few honourable exceptions changed very little over the last… Read More...

Opportunity to showcase progressive public procurement

I am delighted to be a judge for the National Government Opportunities (GO) Excellence in Public Procurement Awards 2017/18 (National GO Awards). Having judged these national awards on several previous occasions, I am expecting to evaluate some exciting entries. If past years are anything to go by, I expect that I will be disappointed when… Read More...

Public procurement professionals can make their mark in 2017

There can be no doubt that 2017 will be a tough and challenging year for the public sector, especially local government and the NHS. This means challenges and hopefully opportunities for procurement professionals across the public sector. There will be less money with further and deeper cuts to expenditure and services. Over the last decade… Read More...

Buyer, be aware when outsourcing – check bidders’ corporate health

Over the last year or so, and most recently in the last few weeks, there has been a litany of major UK outsourcing companies announcing profit warnings and facing major challenges to their business models.

Serco, G4S and now Mitie and Capita have hit the headlines for reasons that they would not have chosen. These companies and others are very...

Public Sector Outsourcing Must Only Involve Ethical Companies

Recent revelations about the popular and well known high street companies Sports Direct and BHS follow an increasing litany of business failures and failure of business ethics. The economy, communities and families are still paying the price for the collapse of companies in the banking and wider financial sector in 2008. The sad reality is that there are many...

Brexit – consequences for public procurement

The narrow majority for Brexit in the recent EU Referendum could have substantial consequences for UK public procurement.

This may not have been the result that many of us voted for but given the Government feels it must now press ahead to take the UK out of the EU, it is important to take measure of and understand the potential...