Pasc chair urges procurement shake-up

15 Jun 10
The new chair of one of the Commons’ most influential committees has called for a ‘dramatic change’ to the government’s procurement practices

By David Williams

15 June 2010

The new chair of one of the Commons’ most influential committees has called for a ‘dramatic change’ to the government’s procurement practices.

In an exclusive interview with Public Finance, Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin, who last week was elected to lead the public administration select committee, described much public sector purchasing as ‘incompetent and expensive’.

Jenkin told PF that he first became aware of the issue of procurement while serving on the defence select committee during the last Parliament.

‘We need to look at cross-governmental procurement,’ he said. ‘I’m particularly interested in the lack of transparency we have in contracts [such as] Private Finance Initiative contracts, in this country.’

The incoming chair complained it was ‘absolutely impossible to get information out of the government’ in the UK, while in the US similar contracts were public knowledge.

‘There’s no reason why we shouldn’t press for a dramatic change for the public contracting practice in this country.’

Jenkin said part of his job would be to ensure the government successfully implemented a programme of public sector transformation, ‘stripping out tiers of bureaucracy and tiers of management that are just unnecessary in the information age’.

While praising modernising ministers such as Oliver Letwin, Francis Maude and Greg Clarke for having ‘thought very deeply about this agenda’, Jenkin added he would not shrink from criticising any government.

He also emphasised the need to allow space in the committee’s programme to call back ministers to give progress updates to ensure that its recommendations were followed up.

Jenkin’s comments came as consultancy firm Compass found that public bodies pay on average 40% too much for IT outsourcing.

A June 15 survey comparing public and private sector contracting showed the government could save £6bn from its current £14bn bill without affecting services.

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