For a long time, the capability gap was primarily seen as lying in procurement, reflecting a belief across government that this particular skill lay at the heart of delivery through contract. The scale of the challenge was described by Peter Gershon in his report on civil procurement in central government, published in 1999:
Although there are some very talented and capable people within the Government Procurement Service that is now being established, I concluded that the overall levels of skill, capability and seniority need to be raised significantly. . .63
In 2004, the Public Accounts Committee reported that less than a quarter of designated procurement staff had Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply (CIPS) or other procurement qualifications, although a further 11% were in training.64 The improvement over subsequent years was minimal. Little has been achieved since: the NAO reported in February 2013 that only around one-third of staff in procurement departments across government were fully CIPS-trained.65
Other than formal training for procurement officers, a number of strategies have been suggested over the years - strengthening departmental leadership on procurement by training senior civil servants; lateral recruitment of people from the private sector with commercial and programme management skills, identifying career paths across the public sector for people with these skills and giving greater weight to delivery skills in the way in which jobs are evaluated.66
Leadership: In its recent report on commercial capability, the Institute for Government has pointed out that it takes time to build professional capability and commitment to the development of these skills must be sustained.67 A brief scan of recent history is not encouraging in this regard.
Sir Ian Byatt identified this as an issue in local government procurement as long ago as 2001.68 OGC raised it again two years later.69 In 2007, Treasury directed that departments and agencies were to 'give a clear direction from the top about the importance they attach to procurement in delivering departmental objectives', and 'ensure that procurement professionals are brought in at the earliest stages of projects, where their skills and knowledge are likely to have most impact. . .'70
OGC developed a training module on 'commercial awareness' for senior civil servants, although it is unclear that this had a significant impact on the weight given to procurement and contract management at the senior levels of departments and agencies. A cross-government review of 28 major contracts, undertaken in 2013, reported:
The reviews found evidence of a lack of senior level involvement on 9/28 contracts reviewed. There are contracts that have no strategic oversight within the Department and there is a general lack of visibility of contract performance at Departmental board or executive level.71
The campaign to appoint commercial directors to departmental boards and the senior executive was, in part, an attempt to raise the profile of procurement in decision- making. The NAO reported in 2004, that of the twenty departments which spent the most on procurement in 2002-03, only three had commercial directors, whose role explicitly covered engagement with the private sector and procurement strategy.72
In this regard, the situation has clearly improved in the intervening years, although given the current state of the market for complex public services, it is to be questioned whether the engagement of senior leadership had changed enough. If there is reason for optimism this time round, it is because the Cabinet Office has taken a leadership role, with senior commercial staff in line departments to be employed by the Government Commercial Organisation.
Lateral recruitment has always been problematic, and the available evidence suggests that over many years, there has been a loss of qualified procurement staff to the private sector. Gershon referred to this problem in 1999: 17% of procurement staff had left the public sector in one year, with three-quarters of these departing within 12 months of obtaining formal qualifications.73 In a report on the procurement of ICT services in 2013, the Public Accounts Committee noted:
. . . we are concerned that key skills are being lost, with some staff using government as a stepping stone to a career in the private sector. Incentives will need to be in place to retain those people with the skills government needs.74
The Government Chief Commercial Officer has had some success in recruiting private sector executives with commercial capabilities, negotiating more flexible terms and conditions, but it has still proven difficult to attract, reward and retain experienced people.
Career paths: The Government Procurement Service was established in 1999 as a cross-government network designed to bring together around 1,500 officers across central government departments and agencies 'with the aim of creating a professional discipline through a set of competencies, training and skills development, and a career path'.75 But the OGC found it difficult to create the sense of a collective identity across government. Five years after its formation, the NAO reported that only a minority of procurement staff had joined the GPS, and only a minority of departments were encouraging them to do so.76
The Cabinet Office is now making yet another attempt, with the intention of using the Government Commercial Organisation to serve as the heart of a network across government and in this way to offer the hope of an ongoing career in the commercial service.
To a significant extent, the development of the procurement capabilities has been constrained by the lack of published research on the variety of tools and models available. For example, there is no readily-available literature on what aspects of competition and contestability deliver better value for money (when done well), or how different procurement approaches and incentive arrangements impact on service delivery. It is difficult to see how the discipline of procurement can significantly progress until there has been a much deeper investment in understanding how it works.