The Worst Tank in the World?
The Army’s “Ajax” armoured vehicles programme is descending into a very expensive farce.
Entries by Peter Smith
Procurement Ethics – Dealing with Conflicts of Interest
Conflicts of interest as a ethical topic has always been relevant in procurement, both public and private sector. Here is a quick quote from my book, Bad Buying. “At a […]
Children’s Social Care – A Broken Market
Sometimes Bad Buying stories are amusing, or we can learn from events without feeling too emotionally involved. But reports last week about the procurement and management of children’s care services […]
Why Doing Public Procurement Properly Matters
The court found this week that Michael Gove, Cabinet Office Minister, broke procurement law when a contract was awarded without competition to Public First, a research and communications agency. As […]
Here it Comes – How to Avoid Inflation-Driven Bad Buying!
Have you seen the price of compost this spring? I reckon it has close to doubled – three large bags from Longacres garden centre last year cost £10 (for 180 […]
PPE Procurement in Court, NAO Report and Radical Transparency (my thoughts)
The UK National Audit Office has published a report titled “Initial learning from the government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic”. It draws on the various reports NAO has conducted over […]
The Post Office and Fujitsu Horizon Case Shows Bad Buying at Its Worst
Many of the Bad Buying stories featured here or in my book have an element of levity to them. Some are decidedly humorous even. But sometimes there is a case […]
Bad Buying – Six Months On
It is now more than six months since “Bad Buying — How Organisations Waste Billions Through Failures, Frauds, and F*ck-ups” hit the (largely virtual) shops. Many thanks to everyone who […]
Corruption and Incompetence – It Gets Everywhere!
The Conservative government has been criticised for some of the procurement actions of the last year or so, with allegations of mismanagement and cronyism. But the Labour Party has not […]
Supply Chain Finance Fraud Isn’t New, Neither is Dodgy Accounting
(But a Government procurement leader joining a supplier while still working as a civil servant is!) In my last article about fraud related to supply chain finance (which came to […]