The Procurement Bill 2024

 

I am delighted to be announce that I shall be working with my colleagues at BIPSolutions to run a series of Roadshows about the Procurement Bill that is currently undergoing review in Parliament.  This will replace the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 that we have all been working under for almost a decade.

The plan is to have Royal Assent next year, and then have a six month period to allow everyone to understand the new rules before it goes live.  So, a year from new we should have a new public procurement regime.

If you are either a Public Sector buyer, or a supplier to the public sector then these changes are going to have an impact on you.

We are running a series of roadshows around England, firstly focusing on Buyers and then a follow up series focused on the implications for suppliers.  

The Buyer events are going start in Newcastle on Tuesday 3rd October, and then move on to Norwich on 10th October and Liverpool on 12th October with my as the host.  My colleague Gemma Waring will be hosting the events in Sheffield (19th Oct), Nottingham (31st Nov), Birmingham (7th Nov) and Bristol (21st Nov).

The supplier dates will be in November in Manchester and London (dates should be released early in October).

We have a range of great guest speakers to help talk through the Bill, and will have a panel discussion where we can address any other public procurement topics.  Questions will be welcome at the end of all sessions.

Fuller details including booking are at the link here.

Hope to see you there.

Matt Hancock - acted unlawfully over contract transparency

 Second good article from Supply Management.

This time it is about the controversy over the failure of Matt Hancock (Health Secretary) to publish contract award notices within 30 days of award.

A few points about this.

Firstly, publishing late is not evidence of corruption, collusion, or "money for mates" as was suggested by some commentators.

Secondly, publishing late does raise eyebrows because if you were indulging in unethical/illegal behaviours in awarding contracts you would probably try to hide it (e.g. by publishing award notices either very late or not at all).  This is not saying there is no smoke without fire, but you can understand why people do say it.  This is why transparency has to be at the heart of public sector procurement - only if we can see what is going on can we be reassured that our taxpayer's money is being spent in the best way.  Late publishing of award notices may seem a minor issue, but it undermines public trust in government procurement.

Thirdly, there is no good reason for the late publication.  It is a relatively minor effort and should be undertaken as a matter of routine.  It is unconnected to the reasons why we may have gone for direct awards of contracts during the Covid-19 crisis (which may or may not be justified - it is a separate issue).  Personally, I suspect the hand of a well known provocateur at the heart of government who celebrated cocking a snook at the rule of law, standards and processes.  Thankfully he has gone (you know who I mean).

Finally, what is clearly wrong is that Matt Hancock authorised the use of government funds to fight a legal case it clearly had no chance of winning, and in which the government was unquestionably in the wrong.  This is an abuse of the legal system, and a waste of taxpayer's money.  The government's own legal team must have told the minister he had no chance of winning.  Instead Mr. Hancock decided to waste time and money during a health crisis.  

Whether the government was prudent or unwise in not having competitive tendering for PPE is something quite separate, and should be studied by an independent review.  It genuinely could be either case.

BIP Solutions webinar on Use of Reg 32 for Public Procurement

My good friends at BIP Solutions are running some useful webinars in the next week.
The next one is Thursday 26th March 2020 at 11am, and covers the use of Regulation 32 (Use of Negotiated Procedure without prior publication) in light of the current Corvid-19 epidemic.

I don't know exactly what they will say, but it is bound to be useful.

Booking details are here.

Deloitte and Prime Minister Theresa May

I spat my coffee out when I read that Deloitte decided not to bid for UK government contracts because PM May was angry with them about a leaked document concerning Brexit.

Note that this was a "voluntary" decision by Deloitte - see Guardian here. There was not official sanction for Deloitte for the link, and is in no way linked to Deloitte's performance on current contracts.  For Deloitte this is a commercial decision to appease a politician in the hopes of currying favour.

This is a very slippery slope.  If the public procurement process can be used by politicians to influence contract award, we are well on the way to corruption and influence peddling.  It may be "accepted practice" for businesses who have upset a minister to "voluntarily" suspend bidding.  This corrupts the fairness, openness and transparency required in public procurement.  If only friends of the government bid we are all losers.

I was pleased to see that Pedro Telles of the excellent www.telles.eu  thinks the same (and said it much earlier than me).  And in the interests of political balance he also points out that Jeremy Corbyn's comments on using Public Procurement to influence the pay structure of suppliers is equally preposterous. and would break the WTO Public Procurement Agreement.

Again, it cannot be said enough: If politicians interfere in the public procurement process we are opening the door to corruption, and the losers will be the public.

This is not the same as saying that Public Procurement cannot be used as an instrument of policy - for example to promotes SMEs and apprenticeships.  But once politicians start saying who can and cannot win contracts we are in banana republic territory.

Brexit and Public Procurement

So now the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland has voted to leave the European Union, what will change in our Public Procurement?

In the short term, nothing much.  What do I mean by the short term?  Well at least two years, which is how long it will take Article 50 to be applied to allow us to leave.  Bearing in mind the politics, than probably means at least 2 and a half years so 2019.  Some commentators are saying 2020 would be more realistic, but who knows? 

What will happen then?  A lot will depend on what happens in the intervening time.  Will the UK stay together or break up?  Which could lead to quite different procurement regimes in the 4 major countries (which are at the moment only a bit different).

It is likely that whatever else happens England (largest country in the UK) will be pulling out of the EU procurement rules, so what will happen in England?

Well again, possibly not a lot for a while.  The UK is a signatory to the World Trade Organisation Government Procurement Agreement which underpins much of the EU procurement regulations.  Given that outside of the EU we will probably use the WTO in redeveloping our trading relationships with other countries, it is fairly unlikely that we shall pull out of that agreement (at least not quickly).

The WTO GPA sets in place a series of rules for procurement above a certain value or threshold, which is the same as the one in the EU regulations.  So thresholds and processes will remain in place, but might be amended.

There would be no ability to appeal to the European Court of Justice as EU procurement directives would not apply (unless that is part of our settlement in leaving).

Could we have a Buy British or Buy English campaign?  Probably not because it would clash with the WTO GPA, and anyhow could have negative consequences on Value for Money (if the foreign providers do not provide better VfM we would not contract with them).

Things like the European Single Procurement Document (ESPD) that came in in April 2016 but still has not actually surfaced, may change some time in the future.

So lots or uncertainty, but given that we need rules for public procurement to avoid corruption and to obtain value for Money, and that we are already signed up to rules for this, and that changing public procurement policy is unlikely to be top of the agenda for a post Brexit country, I think we shall only be seeing small changes for the next 5 years or so.  After that, who knows?  As they say, a week is a long time in politics - let alone 5 years.  In the meantime PCR 2015 stays in place.

So there is still a point in going to EU Procurement training (well, I would say that wouldn't I?)  as nothing is going to change for a few years.  After that, then I am sure we will have new public procurement training to clarify the new rules as and when they emerge.

The new season: Contract Management and Compliant PQQ courses in Manchester 16/17 September 2015

It's not just football that has a new season.  We always have a relatively quiet summer for training, and then things pick up again in September.  Like the transfer window a few things are usually up in the air till the last minute.

But, I can confirm that I shall be running a couple of courses for BIP Solutions Pass Training in Manchester this month
Wednesday 16th September I shall be running Drafting a Compliant PQQ - which is a rather interesting topic given the changes to PQQs this year.
Thursday 17th September it is Contract Management - which is a topic that I know I always drone on about, but has always been vitally important and given the changes in the PCR 2015 will now be even more important than before.

Both are at the Renaissance Marriot in Manchester, just off Deansgate and down the hill a bit from Harvey Nichols (in case you need any more incentive to come along), next to a multi-storey car park.

Hope to see you there.  Now where is that suit and tie?

Eliminating PQQs - the consquences

I know I keep wittering on about this, but I believe that the elimination of PQQs will have the opposite result to that intended - increased participation by SMEs in public contracts.  Philip Prince of Constructionline takes a similar view in Supply Management Magazine.


http://www.supplymanagement.com/blog/2015/06/new-public-contracts-regulations-risk-increasing-the-burden-on-buyers-and-sme-suppliers