2 Develop high-quality, outcomes-focused public procurement managed by skilled professional staff
Some of the initial barriers in developing the UK PPP model have related to public procurement. Increasingly, there are moves towards focusing procurement more on outcomes rather than simply focusing on the specification. This is to ensure services meet the needs of citizens rather than just fulfil contractual obligations.
Providing value for money through improved public procurement means competitive supply markets must be managed by skilled professional staff who need expertise in project management, contract management, market management and model design.28 Procurement and
commercial skills are essential ingredients as they lead to positive partnership relationships with providers. Public sector commissioners need these skills to be able to work with providers so they can design services suitable for the people that use them.
To fully develop these skills, the CBI believes:
■ The private sector should build links with public sector commissioners in central and local government and share best practices through existing programmes and more informally. This will help individuals working in commercial and delivery roles in the public sector better understand what can be achieved through smarter commissioning
■ Governments should look to how the UK Cabinet Office established the capability reviews and the Professional Skills for Government (PSG) programme to assess the eff-cacy of commercial and delivery skills to deliver increased value for money in public services
■ All central departments and significant strategic-level public bodies must have commercial directorates, or their equivalent, to ensure procurement policy and delivery are joined-up
| CASE STUDY | PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) in Europe, Canada and Australia |
| PricewaterhouseCoopers has worked on many of the world's major PPP projects across sectors including health, education, transport, home affairs, criminal justice, local government, housing, social welfare, defence and international development. In the roads sector, PwC developed the shadow toll for the UK DBFO roads programme and this mechanism is now widely used around the world, including the SCUT IP5 in Portugal, which at the time of signing was the largest shadow toll in Europe. Other major roads projects around the world include the E18 in Norway, the A19 in France, the N4/N6 Kinnegad to Kilcock in Ireland and the award-winning Golden Ears Bridge in Canada. PwC has worked with HM Treasury and other government departments in the UK to successfully implement PPPs and has informed projects with other governments. The State of Victoria in Australia benefited from the UK experience by working with PwC to shape and implement the Partnerships Victoria policy to introduce and support the state's PPP programmes. PwC also worked with the German Ministry of Transport to develop a PPP framework and guidelines that have been instrumental in furthering the development of PPPs for infrastructure procurement. | |
| CASE STUDY | GSL in Australia and South Africa |
| GSL has been involved in the UK market for a number of years, providing a range o services such as care and justice services, healthcare and facilities management through PPPs. The company has used this experience to develop overseas operation in South Africa and Australia. Particularly in the custodial sector, GSL is using its experience in running immigration centres in the UK in the operation of Australian detention services for the Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs. Examples of GSL's innovative approach include setting up a large commercial laundry processing 15,000 items per week to industry standards, assembly of office furniture and metalwork parts and welding and assembling and packaging of ironmongery. Such training, personal development and rehabilitation are common features in the Mount Gambier and Port Phillip prisons in Australia and in the work by GSL in South Africa. This is common practice in GSL prisons in the UK. Integrating design and management has also allowed GSL to develop innovative solutions to many of its overseas prisons. One prison is designed in a way that allows prisoners to be housed according to their needs. It consists of 13 self-contained accommodation units, a 35 bed psycho-social unit for prisoners with intellectual disabilities, and a youth unit housing 60 young offenders aged 17-25 which allows them to be separated from older prisoners. | |
■ Central government departments should set up sector-specific procurement 'academies' to pool procurement and contract management expertise. Each department should identify the skills required for complex procurements and delivery models, including the effective use and management of advisors
■ Public bodies should improve the detail of project specifications and ensure they have been well thought through and are appropriate for delivering policy outcomes
■ Central government should establish a more informal mechanism by which bidders can raise concerns about the way procurements are progressing. This would significantly increase supplier confidence in the market
■ Quantitative and qualitative evaluation criteria should be published at the start of all procurements
■ Above a certain threshold, all projects should go through gateway reviews. These must trigger external interventions by central or regional procurement teams where appropriate and should be widely available. Public authorities should be obliged to accept help from the appropriate body if poorly performing projects are allowed to continue
■ Best practice guidance covering ongoing partnering arrangements should be issued
■ All projects should have a named sponsor at the highest level to provide strategic vision and point of accountability through the life of the contract
■ All projects should develop an end-to-end project plan at the outset, setting out the obligations and dependencies on both sides and stipulating how resourcing challenges will be met.29