Partner Article

Businesses review Government procurement reforms

Small and medium sized businesses indicated that government reforms to the procurement process are not quite up to scratch, although a CBI survey suggested that policies are moving in the right direction.

A report that questioned almost 100 companies gave an average score of 5/10 to changes to procurement processes.

Recent mistakes made over a deal for the West Coast mainline franchise, which resulted in the Government dropping First Group’s winning bid, have brought procurement reforms under close public scrutiny.

CBI’s Director General, John Cridland, said: “The recent problems over the procurement of the West Coast franchise have once again highlighted the challenge the public sector faces in its relationship with the private sector.

“As the complexity of deals increases, we need to see urgent improvement in the level of commercial skills that are second-nature to businesses, but are too often absent in public sector procurement.”

One year on from government reform proposals, firms said that measures to reduce complexity within the system have not been well implemented so far, while tangible changes have not yet been felt by the business community.

CBI said lack of progress in producing actual results will be damaging to the Government, as well as economic growth.

The organisation also suggested the taxpayer would bear the brunt of costs if implementation did not speed up significantly.

Proposed changes to procurement were praised by the business community, which gave policies an 8/10 score, while achievements in fast procurement were given a disappointing 4/10.

“Smarter procurement” also received a 4/10 score, while “LEAN training”, which will address the lack of commercial skills in the public sector, was given 6/10.Companies responding to CBI also suggested that pipelines needed to be developed and used more widely, while documentation surrounding procurement needed to be streamlined.

Kevin Craven, Chief Executive of Balfour Beatty, who sits as the Chairman on CBI Procurement Panel agreed with many respondents to CBI’s survey.

He said: “The Government has the right policy solutions but, as suppliers, we are yet to feel the changes on the ground.

“Procurement reform needs to be part of a larger conversation about industrial policy and public service reform where industry wants to play its part.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Miranda Dobson .