Recently in Procurement Category

I am normally in Nottingham every Wednesday.  But this week I am there again today. Hurrah!  I am not allowed to comment (yet) but I will allow you to surmise from this that things are hotting up for UKR in the city, and I am hoping to make some jolly spiffing announcements very soon. Thanks for sticking with me on this, peeps. I fully appreciate that the emerging UKR delivery story has been something of a slow burn. I guess nobody ever said it was going to be easy.  

Last Monday a Very Senior Person from the Homes and Communities Agency gave me a rap over the knuckles about my blog of 10 August.  It seems I only had half the story (nothing much new there then) and that this latest initiative from Mr Pickles is a Very Worthy Extension to the HCA ATLAS programme (of which, after all, I was always a huge fan) and that it is much needed in certain parts of the country. 

Dr Evans has a cloud of blue fog above his head as work on the findings of the UKR/EG Regeneration Commission continues; we work to digest what was being said - and, more importantly, the huge amount of tangible support that was being offered - and we come out in favour of a plan of action in time for the Build A Better Britain Conference on 6 December. 

I am seriously glad we are embarked on this course, we've all seen there was more bad news yesterday with the banner headlines on the million young people unemployed, and there isn't a moment to lose.
 
And this is the week that Greg Clark's (in my view, splendid) Localism Bill became law.  Technically, he may have given the Commission the exact tools to do its job.

I have been a little overwhelmed in the last couple of days with messages of support, offers of assistance, and a wealth of good ideas, to take into my new incarnation as chief executive of UK Regeneration.  It would seem that there is a massive appetite out there to rebuild the regeneration sector form the grass roots up, and it is most heartening I can tell you.

My thanks to all who have written, hopefully we can harness all of what you offer and suggest, for the future good of the regeneration sector and the UK economy.  You're a lovely mob really. I am truly grateful.
 
One of the things we are going to have to make some serious inroads on is the fraught issue of public sector procurement. One of my colleagues summed up the British attitude to procurement as "bordering on obsessive", and "colluding to achieve the worst possible outcome" and the fact that 50% of all OJEU submissions come from the UK would certainly bear this out. 

OJEU procurement was of course introduced to ensure that organisations using public funds ensure fair competition, probity and value for money.  But it is met with widespread fear and loathing (and if the Scandinavians can find a way through without compromising on integrity of process, then I'm not clear why we're so stuck in the mire). 
 
One of my loyal correspondents tells of me he has identified a specific issue relating to the Buying Solutions Framework (the old OGC) described as the National Procurement Partner for UK public services. Just as with OJEU, this framework certainly seems to disadvantage SMEs.  The main reason for its use by many public sector bodies is that it avoids the need to follow an individual OJEU route for procurement and instead allows public sector procurers to tap into an existing arrangement which is already OJEU-compliant, thus saving time and money in procurement.  His contention is that this framework operates against the interests of SMEs, who in practice find it impossible to secure a places on the framework for contracts.  It would be invidious to name names here, but UKR is compiling a dossier of such examples where SMEs have applied in force, but the analysis of the lists of approved suppliers would confirm their absence.