government waste report due today

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]

That would depend on what department they are in ?

Originally Posted by Taf

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

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

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]

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.

Originally Posted by Taf

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]

Sounds like an opportunity for another multi-billion pound computer system to co-ordinate government purchasing.

[joglynne]

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]

Originally Posted by joglynne

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]

Originally Posted by martyh

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]

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.

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]

Originally Posted by martyh

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.

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

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]

Read it and weep!

]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]

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 ----------

Originally Posted by Mr Angry

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?