Money No Object! UK Government Invites Proposals from Consulting Firms
(I asked CCS if they wanted to comment on this article and they said no). The Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is the central buying organisation for the UK government – […]
Entries by Peter Smith
Be Careful with Social Value!
Bad buying takes many forms, and there is a risk we might see a new driver for poor procurement emerging in the coming months and years. The problems are avoidable, […]
Should Badly-Treated Suppliers Receive Millions? Green Paper Wrestles with a Tricky Issue
Just before the end of 2020, the UK government issued a Green Paper on the future of public procurement regulations post Brexit. I know, it sounds dull, but before you […]
Free School Lunch Boxes – What Went Wrong?
So what do we make of the UK schools lunch food box scandal? It all started with a mother posting a picture on social media of what she said were […]
The Proctopus Christmas Party and Awards – Including Bad Buying Failure of the Year!
Earlier this month the first Proctopus Christmas Party and Awards evening took place in the glittering surroundings of … Zoom. Proctopus is an informal group, largely LinkedIn based, that has […]
UK National Audit Office Looks at PPE Again – Just Why Did We Buy So Much?
The second UK National Audit Office report on pandemic procurement was issued recently. Titled “The supply of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 pandemic” it focuses entirely on PPE. […]
Look Who’s Talking – FACT360 AI Detects Potential Fraud
The fraud section in my new book was great fun to write. I know you can’t and shouldn’t call fraud “fun” in any sense, but the case studies I researched […]
More on the NAO Pandemic Procurement Report – Failure in the Cabinet Office
The NAO report on UK government procurement through the pandemic came out recently and we wrote about it here, focusing mainly on the PPE (personal protective equipment) issues it identified […]
NAO Pandemic Procurement Report Sticks the (Well-Judged) Boot In
This week saw the publication of the UK National Audit Office’s second report concerning government procurement during the pandemic. The first, all about ventilators, raised some interesting issues (which I […]