Peter is a professional leader with considerable expertise and experience in public and private sector procurement performance improvement. He has an MA in Mathematics from Cambridge University, is a Fellow and was 2003 President of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, and has written and spoken widely about procurement issues. He was recently appointed a Commissioner (non-executive Director) for the Legal Services Commission, with a particular brief around commercial matters related to Legal Aid provision. He is also a non-executive director of Remploy, the UK’s leading provider of employment services for disabled people and other disadvantaged groups Before moving into consultancy, he was Procurement Director for the Department of Social Security (the DSS – the largest UK Government central Department) and the NatWest Group, as well as holding senior positions in the Dun & Bradstreet Corporation and the Mars Group. At the DSS he led the procurement of the largest ever (and very successful) public sector property contract in Europe; the PRIME PFI deal. In virtually all his senior roles, he has driven significant change; either in developing a ‘green field’ procurement organisation (such as the UK National Police Procurement Centre); or in leading major structural / strategic change (e.g. NatWest). Peter founded ‘Procurement Excellence’ in ‘04, and since then has won significant strategic consulting, interim management and training work, with a particular focus on Government clients. Peter’s largest client is the Treasury’s Office of Government Commerce. He has supported the Gershon Efficiency Review, and work on procurement structures and strategy across Government. He developed the best practice model used by OGC as the basis for their Procurement Capability Reviews of government departments, and has acted as external reviewer for 4 major Departments; DWP, DfES (now DCSF), DfT, and most recently, the Department of Health. His first book, co-authored with Fiona Czerniawska, will be published early in 2010 by The Economist Books; “Buying Professional Services; a guide to how to get value”
Sir Philip Green’s six “clear reasons why government conducts its business so inefficiently” are excellent. But other suggestions range from the tried-and-failed and the simply wrong to the “very Stalinist”
Peter Smith’s blog will go live this afternoon following the publication of Sir Philip Green’s full report on government spending, in the meantime please read the teasers…
I take a non-political stance here and on my own blog. I take the line that questioning the competence and methodology of government policy delivery in the context of procurement is legitimate: challenging policy itself is not. So please don’t interpret these comments in any other way.
Let’s ask why are so many organisations so bad at running compliant EU procurement processes? Let’s ask why do they take nine, 12 or 18 months to run competitions the legislation allows to be done in about three?
I am really not sure about the idea of GPs commissioning services. Having PCTs as the commissioners was far from perfect; but a lot of effort has gone into trying to develop procurement skills in those organisations, and there was at least a sensible degree of demand aggregation in that structure.
Imagine I had an appropriate MP or minister pinned in the corner at a party, glass of wine in hand – what would my top 10 questions be around the current “exciting times” in public procurement?
The big danger is this. The switched-on departments were already planning their own negotiations to drive cost reduction with key suppliers based on areas I’ve highlighted before – demand management, trading obligations for price reduction, or review of specifications for instance. Now I suspect all that is on hold, while this “top level” initiative takes centre stage.
So, when the British government knocks on their door and asks for substantial price reductions on current contracts (“immediate negotiations to achieve cost reductions from the 70 major suppliers to government” as the now-departed Mr Laws put it), let’s not kid ourselves they will have any empathy with our financial plight.
My first thought when Clegg disappeared to talk to Labour was “how sneaky of him”. Then I thought; hang on, wouldn’t I do this, even if I had a supplier I was very keen to use, just to make sure that supplier knows I have a real alternative? It is all about developing your BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement), a fundamental concept in negotiation.
Hit the fat cats, squash corruption
To start addressing the “fat cat” dangers identified yesterday, we recommend introducing a cap on day rates for professional service providers to public sector organisations, linked to the prime minister’s salary.
