Public sector spends £221bn on procurement

Public sector procurement should be streamlined in a bid to save money and make life easier for the private sector. Chairman of the Greening the Public Sector, Colin Cram, said: […]

Public sector procurement should be streamlined in a bid to save money and make life easier for the private sector.

Chairman of the Greening the Public Sector, Colin Cram, said: “Public sector procurement spend is £221bn. It’s a massive amount, accounting for one third of public sector expenditure. We have a right to expect that this money is managed coherently. That’s why it has got to be at the heart of sustainability.

“For every man, woman and child that is £3,500 a year, which equates to £14,000 for a family-of-four and £250,000 throughout their lifetime.

“There are 40,000 procurement points in the public sector and not a coherent approach. We need to see a logical structure.

“To submit a simple tender costs the private sector about £1,000. If you think of the duplicate tenders the public sector requires you can see that big savings for both the public and private sector can be made.”

Fellow conference speaker Ken Cole, commercial and procurement advisor at Capital Ambition, highlighted the case of one private catering company having to submit 40 tenders to 40 different Government agencies for the same contract.

Mr Cram proposed that the procurement points be streamlined and divided into specialist, central, regional and possibly sub regional points to improve efficiency.

He said: “The private sector could deal with this system more easily and it could be held accountable for delivering savings and sustainability.”

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