6 Departments continue to experience a shortage of staff with the necessary commercial skills and experience to successfully deliver complex projects.
Commercial leadership: The OGC's recent Procurement Capability Reviews (PCRs) found that only eight out of 16 government departments had effective commercial leadership from their commercial director (or equivalent).
Commercial awareness amongst senior civil servants: A 2009 OGC review found that only 10 out of 18 Senior Responsible Owners (SROs) on major projects had substantial commercial experience.
Project Teams: Eight of the 12 complex projects assessed by the Major Project Review Group (MPRG, see Glossary) had commercial skills and experience gaps.
7 Government departments have attempted to fill this commercial skills gap with interim staff and advisers. There is a wide variation in individual departments' reliance on both interims and advisers. Thirteen departments have provided information showing that 35 per cent of their commercial directorate's staff spend is on interims. Often these are roles that would otherwise be carried out by civil servants. Some departments also depend heavily on the support of specialist advisers. Whilst both interims and advisers can make a valuable contribution, particularly those with highly specialist skills, an over reliance on them can lead to: higher project staff costs; departmental staff failing to take proper responsibility for commercial decisions; and a loss of commercial knowledge when the interims or advisers leave. Following the OGC's Building the procurement profession in government report,2 permanent secretaries have committed to reducing the number of interims holding posts in core procurement teams to no more than 10 per cent. The OGC plans to support and monitor this process.
8 Departments have significant weaknesses in a number of the commercial skills critical to the delivery of complex projects. The shortcomings identified by NAO and PAC reports have been confirmed by the OGC's PCRs. The OGC's reviews found that commercial skills were generally weak across all 16 central government departments. Feedback provided by departments' commercial directors and private sector companies underlined these skills deficits. The biggest gaps are in contract management, the commissioning and management of advisers, risk identification and management, and business acumen.
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2 Building the procurement profession in government, GPS reward strategy (December 2008).