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martyh 11-10-2010 09:34
government waste report due today
 
Quote:
A "staggering" waste of money in Whitehall has been uncovered by the man who owns the Top Shop and BHS store chains
This failure in its centralised approach to buying goods and services has meant departments pay hugely different amounts for the same items
"Any large organisation would want to use its credit rating and scale to buy efficiently.
"The conclusion of this review is clear - credit rating and scale in virtually every department has not been used to make Government spending efficient."

About time someone got a grip of departmental spending .It will be interesting to see how much the gov pays for a pen

Taf 11-10-2010 10:52
Re: government waste report due today
 
That would depend on what department they are in ?

martyh 11-10-2010 14:11
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taf (Post 35107332)
That would depend on what department they are in ?

exactly ,how the buyers for the government haven't sussed this out before is beyond me

Quote:
Sir Philip Green, the entrepreneur who owns the Topshop and BHS store chains, has told Sky News that businesses would fail if they were run like the Government
link

i think he is 100% correct here

Quote:
Speaking to Sky’s Jeff Randall, he said: "The only reason the Government can operate like this and we can't is that they've got a printing press that prints money and we don't.

Taf 11-10-2010 14:44
Re: government waste report due today
 
When I worked as a Home Office Radio Tech, stores were centralised for most items, but for some items each depot had the power to locally purchase. The variation in cost through this method was huge, but the system continued to the end (bought lock, stock, barrel and remaining personnel by NTL... then closed down).

Civil Service Inertia, and "the way we've always done it" were the root cause of this idiocy.

martyh 11-10-2010 14:48
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Taf (Post 35107446)
When I worked as a Home Office Radio Tech, stores were centralised for most items, but for some items each depot had the power to locally purchase. The variation in cost through this method was huge, but the system continued to the end (bought lock, stock, barrel and remaining personnel by NTL... then closed down).

Civil Service Inertia, and "the way we've always done it" were the root cause of this idiocy.

well kudos to DC for at least having a go at sorting it out .I think there will be some suppliers a tad upset though when there contracts are renegotiated

Pauls9 11-10-2010 15:01
Re: government waste report due today
 
Sounds like an opportunity for another multi-billion pound computer system to co-ordinate government purchasing.

joglynne 11-10-2010 15:55
Re: government waste report due today
 
When I worked in the Civil Service I used to order my own general office stocks and it annoyed the hell out of me that I knew I could get everything I ordered cheaper at a wholesalers I used for my husbands business. Even WH Smiths which were by no means the cheapest office suppliers on the high street were cheaper than the Official CS suppliers.

When I tried to do something about the exorbitant prices we were being charged I received a virtual pat on the head and was told that the suppliers we were using had won the tender as they had put forward the most competitive bids and we were stuck with them.

Osem 11-10-2010 16:11
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by joglynne (Post 35107473)
When I worked in the Civil Service I used to order my own general office stocks and it annoyed the hell out of me that I knew I could get everything I ordered cheaper at a wholesalers I used for my husbands business. Even WH Smiths which were by no means the cheapest office suppliers on the high street were cheaper than the Official CS suppliers.

When I tried to do something about the exorbitant prices we were being charged I received a virtual pat on the head and was told that the suppliers we were using had won the tender as they had put forward the most competitive bids and we were stuck with them.
I have a feeling that large parts of the public sector are riddled with that sort of thing sadly....

Welshchris 11-10-2010 16:25
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by martyh (Post 35107306)
About time someone got a grip of departmental spending .It will be interesting to see how much the gov pays for a pen
u dont really expect high ranking government officials to use 10p bic biros do u? lol

They will make some Awful excuse that the leve they are at entitles them to the best pen money can buy from Harrods..

pop80_uk 11-10-2010 17:38
Re: government waste report due today
 
The real reason for the lack of collaborative procurement in government and central government (councils) is quite simply politics. A labour controlled council will refuse to collaborate with a Con or Lib Dem council, its poor but its a fact.

The buyers are not to blame they are constrained by politics and red tape, not to mention the EU public sector procurement regulations, which limit the actions they can take and the way contracts are procured and goods and services bought.

There is a lot more to this story than simply a weak supply chain or refusal to collaborate.

As for the pens cheaper at the local warehouse etc, 99% of contracts let and awarded in public and private sectors you could find the product cheaper, the difference is it will not have been tendered and often these items are special offers etc.

Its an interesting report and collaborative procurement does add value, however NHS PASA failed on many levels but one was due to their "buying power" resulting in higher prices than alot of local NHS procurement departments could purchase at from local suppliers.

martyh 11-10-2010 17:52
Re: government waste report due today
 
One of the things i would like to see tackled since waste is under scrutiny is the amount of unnecessary froms sent out to members of the public ,having just done this years tax return i know first hand how much waste there must be judging by the amount i threw away as unneeded supliments ,including the main return as i just printed off what i needed before the tax office managed to get one out to me

Mr Angry 11-10-2010 19:29
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by martyh (Post 35107534)
One of the things i would like to see tackled since waste is under scrutiny is the amount of unnecessary froms sent out to members of the public ,having just done this years tax return i know first hand how much waste there must be judging by the amount i threw away as unneeded supliments ,including the main return as i just printed off what i needed before the tax office managed to get one out to me
Mentioning a tax return and Philip Green in the one thread - I salute you Martyh.

martyh 11-10-2010 21:03
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Angry (Post 35107572)
Mentioning a tax return and Philip Green in the one thread - I salute you Martyh.
reading your link i'm not sure if that makes him clever or a devious sod or a clever devious sod :)

Osem 12-10-2010 11:34
Re: government waste report due today
 
Read it and weep!

Quote:
]It’s the many smaller examples of waste that some will see as shocking, such as that on a single IT contract, 400 private sector employees are being hired at a daily rate of more than £1,000 per day, for tasks that Sir Philip was unable to identify.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereport..._ran_my_b.html

Ignitionnet 12-10-2010 12:11
Re: government waste report due today
 
A grand a day for doing nothing? I need to look into government contracts more often.

---------- Post added at 12:11 ---------- Previous post was at 12:10 ----------

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mr Angry (Post 35107572)
Mentioning a tax return and Philip Green in the one thread - I salute you Martyh.
Who better to pull the government up on things than a man who pulled the wool over their eyes? ;)

Mr Angry 12-10-2010 13:17
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ignitionnet (Post 35107914)
A grand a day for doing nothing? I need to look into government contracts more often.

---------- Post added at 12:11 ---------- Previous post was at 12:10 ----------



Who better to pull the government up on things than a man who pulled the wool over their eyes? ;)
Quite. It's a great example of "Poacher turned gamekeeper" and it makes for very uncomfortable reading for many private sector suppliers.

frogstamper 13-10-2010 02:46
Re: government waste report due today
 
As much as I'd like to have a pop at the appointment of Phillip Green, there is no hiding from the appalling waste that seems to exit all over Whitehall, how on earth can it be justified that there are 70000 civil servants who hold procurement credit cards with no oversight on bills below £1000??

zaax 14-10-2010 22:05
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by martyh (Post 35107306)
About time someone got a grip of departmental spending .It will be interesting to see how much the gov pays for a pen
.01p but it takes 3 people to order it.

Arthurgray50@blu 14-10-2010 22:16
Re: government waste report due today
 
I said in a previous thread that there is a disgusting waste from government buildings.

They purchase the most expensive wines, beers imaginable and we the tax payers pay for that, it was recently stated that when the cuts were announced, the Tory party thought nothing of spending a forune on a party, an yet they are threatening cuts to everyone in this country, l have said before, there is one rule for them and one rule for us.:mad:

Damien 14-10-2010 22:25
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu (Post 35109088)
I said in a previous thread that there is a disgusting waste from government buildings.

They purchase the most expensive wines, beers imaginable and we the tax payers pay for that, it was recently stated that when the cuts were announced, the Tory party thought nothing of spending a forune on a party, an yet they are threatening cuts to everyone in this country, l have said before, there is one rule for them and one rule for us.:mad:
Well this is confusing. You start the paragraph lambasting government waste and then attack the government for threatening cuts?

Arthurgray50@blu 14-10-2010 22:54
Re: government waste report due today
 
I refer to the term of 'waste' they are wasting money.

'we' are having to make cuts and yet they are 'wasting money' on lavish parties, this is what l am referring to.

zaax 14-10-2010 22:55
Re: government waste report due today
 
But don't forget it keeps the people making these product in jobs and business running.

Derek 14-10-2010 22:59
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu (Post 35109088)
the Tory party thought nothing of spending a forune on a party, an yet they are threatening cuts to everyone in this country, l have said before, there is one rule for them and one rule for us.:mad:
Care to eleborate? Or was this mentioned at the end of your local labour parties myths to attack the tories over session?

Pauls9 15-10-2010 12:22
Re: government waste report due today
 
Quote:
Originally Posted by zaax (Post 35109082)
.01p but it takes 3 people to order it.
That may have been tongue in cheek, but you have to bear in mind that for each separate order there's an overhead cost. It can be more cost effective to place one order for thousands of pens, than to authorise reimbursement for a thousand purchases of pens by staff locally.

sherer 15-10-2010 15:48
Re: government waste report due today
 
on some issues he did have a point but on others he didn't.

Yes you can always buy a laptop \ PC cheaper in Tesco's etc but by buying there you won't get a support agreement or maintenance costs that a big business will need, hence the higher price.

The same with offices, yes you can downsize but to do that you have to move all the equipment and network over. This is a huge tasks and sometimes the cost of doing that may be more than you would save on cheaper rent


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