18 February 2000
Gershon, currently the chief operating officer of BAe Systems, will be paid a salary of £180,000, plus performance-related pay likely to be worth another 3%. This will make him the highest-paid civil servant, earning at least £7,000 more than Cabinet Secretary Sir Richard Wilson and more than Sir John Chisholm, head of the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency, previously the highest-paid.
Sir Steve Robson, director of finance, regulation and industry at the Treasury, said the appointment was 'pathbreaking' and a 'huge coup' for the public sector. He suggested the modernising government agenda would inevitably result in further high-profile moves.
'I hope that Peter's appointment will by no means be the last. I think that most forward-thinking public servants welcome people coming in, bringing new ideas and new experience into the civil service at the very top,' said Sir Steve.
The OGC brings together the staff of the Central Computer and Telecommunications Agency, the Property Advisers to the Civil Estate, the Buying Agency and procurement staff from the Treasury, Cabinet Office and Department of Health.
Although Gershon's salary is at the top of the scale, he is still taking a significant pay cut from his £800,000 package at BAe. He described his new role as 'a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to fundamentally change the way government sets about procurement'.
Gershon will have a head start in preparing for his new role. He was the author last year of a report for the government on civil procurement, which proposed the establishment of the OGC. This suggested that annual savings of £1bn could be made from the government's procurement budget of £13bn.
The £1bn savings will be made by aggregating departmental requirements and through greater use of the Internet. The OGC is particularly keen on e-tendering, which Robson expects to be 'ubiquitous' by 2002.
PFfeb2000
