Archive for February, 2011
Posted by Hailey Thomson on February 24, 2011
Prime Minister David Cameron
David Cameron’s article in the Telegraph on Sunday left a bitter taste in the air for many readers. The PM wants “the decisive end of the old-fashioned, top-down, take-what-you’re-given model of public services” In turn, opening up ALL services to tender, starting with the NHS as a model. Polly Toynbee wrote in the Guardian on Monday
“…the NHS open to contract by “any willing provider”. Any company can claim the right to provide any part of the NHS – even if the local GP consortium is very happy with the NHS surgeons providing operations.”
She highlights the downside of these open to tender services being “traded as financial instruments, sliced and diced according to risk and sold on.” The 1332 comments to follow the article are a mob of extremely irate voters. The general feel of the readers is distrust for the current PM. One commenter noted, “None of this has been voted for – it is in effect a coup”, another said “the death of Public Services” and one clever suggestion was to “sell the Crown Jewels” to put money back into services! As a whole no one was overly impressed with the news.
As a tax payer, mother and frequent user of the NHS I can’t say I am overly impressed. However, the long time employee of Tenders Direct and the supplier focused side of me, is actually secretly excited for all of our customers out there. The long awaited contracts will be coming in hard and fast, so get ready suppliers; the floodgate has opened.
Posted in General Procurement, Politics of Procurement | Tagged: David Cameron, NHS, Service Tenders, tenders | 1 Comment »
Posted by Tim Williams on February 16, 2011
The Cabinet Office under Francis Maude, has announced that it intends to eliminate PQQs (Pre-Qualification Questionnaires) for all central government procurements under £100,000.
While I hate filling these things in and find that they are frequently lazily or incompetently written and just as often poorly evaluated, they do fulfil a useful purpose. That is, they avoid the need for suppliers who stand little chance of winning the contract, to complete the full tender document, as well as the need for the buyer to evaluate the full tender from a multitude of suppliers.
I fear that the main result from scrapping the PQQ is that we (the suppliers) end up having to spend many days or weeks completing a full tender, instead of a day or so completing a PQQ, which will then be even more incompetently evaluated by the buyer, as they have a much greater volume to assess.
Surely what is required is a reform of the PQQ process and training to ensure that procurement staff understand what they are doing, rather than engaging in a box ticking exercise? We seem to be throwing the baby out with the bath water.
Posted in Politics of Procurement | Tagged: Cabinet Office, PQQ, Pre-Qualification Questionnaire, Public contracts | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Tim Williams on February 16, 2011
In December 2010 the Cabinet Office invited feedback on the effectiveness of the public procurement rules. The purpose of that exercise was to inform the UK’s involvement in the ongoing review of the rules by
the European Commission.
The Commission’s review is still underway, and it has now released a formal public consultation paper to which the Cabinet Office is preparing a UK response. Since the Commission’s recent consultation paper is substantially more detailed than the information previously provided by the Cabinet Office, they have extended the deadline for comments until 25th February.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Politics of Procurement, Procurement Law | Tagged: Cabinet Office, Contracts, European Commission, Office of Government Commerce, OGC, Public contracts, Public Procurement directives | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Tim Williams on February 10, 2011
The Supreme Court yesterday (9th February 2011) delivered a landmark judgement in the first procurement case to reach the court, overturning previous decisions of the High Court and the Court of Appeal. 
The economic downturn and the massive cuts in funding for local authorities which are now beginning to flow through will increasingly require councils to look for new and innovative ways to deliver services. In February 2007, the London Borough of Brent invited tenders in accordance with the Public Contracts Regulations 2006, (the Procurement Regulations), for the provision of insurance. The company Risk Management Partners (RMP) submitted a tender, but was informed on 7 March 2007 that Brent had decided to award the contract to London Authorities Mutual Limited (LAML) which had not taken part in the competition. LAML was formed by a group of local authorities to provide insurance to the member authorities. Brent became a member of, and helped to fund, LAML, a guaranteed indemnity mutual insurance company. There was an expected saving of 15 to 20 per cent in comparison with external insurance.
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Posted in Procurement Law | Tagged: Court of Appeal, European Court of Justice, High Court, procurement, Public contracts, Risk Management Partners, RMP, Supreme Court, Teckal | 2 Comments »
Posted by Hailey Thomson on February 10, 2011
When I was working in customer services for Tenders Direct I was always getting asked about the loophole that is Part B Services. Whispers of a tender due to come out any day now, companies waiting patiently and BANG, before they know it, the Tender has been awarded to John Doe Ltd down the road. How does this happen, where was the tender published and why do some tenders disappear into a black hole of EU Laws?!
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Posted in General Procurement, Procurement Law, Tender Tips | Tagged: Contract Award, Exclusions, low value tenders, Part B Services, procurement, Tenders Direct | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Sandra Hatfield on February 7, 2011
A survey by the Local Government Association published this week has revealed. Although only a small pool, the result is interesting as it makes you wonder if this is a common trend across government. Only 36% of respondents believe that the EU Remedies Directive has led to more efficient and effective procurement practices.
The Remedies Directive aims to strengthen the hand of losing suppliers to challenge contracts under the OJEU. It highlights steps suppliers can take to challenge the award of a public contract. A key change is the remedy of “ineffectiveness” which gives courts the powers to scrap a contract in particular circumstances including, if it has not been advertised, the “standstill” period has been ignored or if the rules governing a framework agreement have been broken.
Posted in Procurement Law | Tagged: OJEU, procurement, Public contracts, Public Procurement directives, suppliers | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Tim Williams on February 1, 2011
Public procurement accounts for roughly 17% of the European Union’s GDP. In times of tight budgets and economic difficulties in many Member States, public procurement policy must ensure the most efficient use of public funds, with a view to supporting growth and job creation. This would require flexible and user-friendly tools that make transparent
and competitive contract awards as easy as possible for European public authorities and their suppliers. With these objectives in mind, the European Commission has launched a consultation which will focus on the modernisation of the rules, tools and methods for public procurement. The deadline for responses to the Green Paper is 18 April 2011.
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Posted in Politics of Procurement, Procurement Law | Tagged: DG Markt, EU, European Commission, European Union, procurement, Public contracts, Public Procurement directives | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Hailey Thomson on February 1, 2011
As part of a successful year Tenders Direct are offering you £100 of John Lewis vouchers for everyone you recommend to the service!
What does £100 get you in John Lewis?
6 spotty rubber ducks or
1 Panasonic HD Pocket Camcorder or
200 Orange Golf Tees or
4 Tubes of Yves Saint Laurent Lipstick or
2 Suitcases or
1 Kindle e-reader (+ £11 out of your pocket!)
Now get out your little black book, dig out those old Business Cards, glance through Twitter and help out an old friend you know would benefit! Visit the Tenders Direct website for more information and Terms and Conditions.
Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »
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