Monday, 4 August 2025

Covid and PPE Procurement

I think this is a very interesting submission from the UK Anti-Corruption Coalition to the Covid-19 enquiry.


My comments were;


Chris, great stuff. As my delegates will know, the late publication of PPE contract notices is a major gripe of mine (even allowing, as you do, for the difficult circumstances). That this was a deliberate attempt by government to escape scrutiny is (I think) an inescapable conclusion, leading to a huge loss of trust in public procurement and government. Even if no wrong doing were to be discovered, this is a terrible damage for the country. It was a deliberate choice by Ministers, who should be ashamed of themselves.
The facts that PPE was expensive, and fraudsters took advantage with sub-par products, are probably unavoidable. The damage to public trust was easily avoidable. It immediately leads people to think "there is no smoke without fire" and to suspect deliberate fraud and corruption at the highest level. In short, the exact opposite of what might have been intended.



Friday, 1 August 2025

GovPD - win-more-contracts-understanding-and-implementing-the-procurement-act-2023 5th August 2025

 There is good news and bad news about the course I run for GovPD - Winning more contracts, understanding and implementing the Procurement Act 2023.

The good news is that we are running it online again on 5th August 2025.

The bad news is that that session is already sold out.

The better news is that we have more dates scheduled - 1st October 2025 and 3rd December 2025.

But if you are interested, might be an idea to get booking.  The course is mostly focused on suppliers, but is relevant to buyers too (and I make sure to tweak the content according to the delegates).