One of the biggest issues that I and my colleagues regularly confront is the fact that the public sector is more reactive than proactive in many areas of procurement.
The level of engagement with the current Procurement Reform agenda is a perfect example.
When the Green Paper ‘Transforming Public Procurement’ was published in December 2020, it suggested such wide-ranging change that the public sector should have been all over it, questioning elements of change, suggesting new approaches to procurement and trying to understand what it would mean for their authority.
Out of the total 619 responses to the consultation, only 226 came from contracting authorities (with almost half of those coming from local government), 269 from suppliers and 124 from other interested parties. These numbers may seem large but there are more than 30,000 buying points in the public sector in the UK, so these figures only represent a very small percentage.
Given that Cabinet Office engaged with over 500 stakeholders and organisations and hosted more than 600 representatives of contracting authorities at their 2021 workshops, that’s a pretty poor return.
That should not detract from the important minority within the profession who are actively looking at what the Procurement Bill will mean for their authority.
It feels as though, just as with the Public Contract Regulations 2015, most public bodies are waiting until the legislation is passed before acting on it.
By the end of this year, the new legislation will be in place, if everything goes to schedule.
At what point will those dragging their feet decide to act?
Bear in mind that there isn’t a bottomless pit of procurement consultants and advisers waiting to swoop in to help them to get ready.
The most organised authorities have already applied resources and engaged with experts to review their strategies and plans, upskill their buyers and stakeholders, educate their supply chain and work to update their documentation and policies.
Proactive contracting authorities are already working on these things, considering which current contracts to extend to take advantage of the new legislation; looking at current frameworks and dynamic purchasing systems and considering whether the new version will be a better option; considering how to best implement the National Procurement Policy Statement to drive better outcomes from their contracts; and on it goes.
In the meantime, there are countless contracting authorities just waiting and waiting and waiting, with no real impetus to move forward.
Those who have been proactive will be able to hit the ground running once the new legislation come in.
The six-month bedding in period will be used by those authorities to test and retest their new strategies and policies and to iron out any problems before the go live date.
That isn’t to suggest everything will be perfect for them, but those working on things now will certainly understand any gaps in their procurement systems or the knowledge and skill levels that their staff need to be compliant and will be better placed to ensure their budgets deliver the maximum benefit for the end users of their services and for taxpayers.
Find further procurement reform comment and insight at https://www.procurementreform.co.uk/buyer-support/
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