Compliance with public procurement regulations is an issue now firmly in the spotlight.

A recent National Audit Office (NAO) report on one public body found 31 separate system failures in 14 contracts.

These include:

• Awarding without going to competitive tender

• Seeking fewer than three tenders

• Failing to follow EU Procurement Directives

• Exceeding the approved amount

• Extending the remit of the original contract without proper approval

Commenting on these worrying findings, the head of the NAO, Sir John Bourn, justifiably said: “Robust procurement procedures are basic to the proper conduct of public business and I consider that these weaknesses were matters which management should have addressed from the outset.”

Let’s not fool ourselves into believing these findings are the exception. A detailed review of many public bodies – perhaps including your organisation – would doubtless highlight the same types of failure and show a similar frequency of their occurrence.
The problem is that robust procurement procedures are all too often missing; or worse, even when processes are documented they are not complied with. Many organisations possess no formal procurement manual or process documentation and even where such guidance is available it is often outdated and non-compliant.

Thousands of organisations, public and private, have already benefited from BiP Solutions’ Procurement Advice and Support Service (PASS) best practice tendering/procurement roadshows and consultancy.

Now your organisation can have direct access to PASS expertise too.

Whether you work within public sector procurement or tender for public sector contracts, BiP Solutions’ Procurement Advice and Support Service will help you improve your efficiency and effectiveness.

Our PASS team of experienced consultants offers a range of expert services which can be tailored to meet your organisation’s specific needs – whether you are a buyer or a supplier.

Where PASS consultants can help Buyers and Suppliers...

Buyers

• Introduction and operation of charging for discretionary services

• Achieving Beacon status

• How to introduce procurement cards

• Effective supplier sourcing, development and management

• Working with the voluntary sector

• Implementation of Buyer Profiles

• Advancing social issues through procurement

• Developing supply chain partnerships

• Developing a procurement strategy

• Creating and initiating an effective e-procurement strategy

• Through-life management and whole-life costing

• Creating compliant standing orders

• Procurement manual reviews

• Operating framework agreements

• Developing an e-auction programme

• Creating a new procurement manual

• Supplier selection and accreditation

• Tender evaluation

• Innovative approaches to knowledge transfer within government

• Joined-up government

Buyers & Suppliers

• Developing relative weighting criteria

• Tendering and the Freedom of Information Act

• TUPE and outsourcing

• Building partnerships

• Helping SMEs and ethnic minority businesses through procurement

• Thinking and buying ‘Green’

• Effective benchmarking

• Partnering and collaboration

• Assessing and managing risk

• Stimulating and delivering innovation

• Preparing for the new EU Consolidated Procurement Directive

• Effective and compliant evaluation

• Developing and delivering effective procurement project management

• Process mapping

• ITT preparation

• Improved performance indicators

• Sustainable development within decision-making processes and delivery of services
Suppliers

• Tender preparation – including initial advice, ‘Red Teaming’ and tender drafting

• Tendering process controls

• Practical solutions to improve procurement performance

• Presentation of tender response documentation

• Strategic direction and performance

• Opportunities offered by e-government

• Knowledge of clients’ processes and practices, including evaluation techniques

• Practices for responding to Expressions of Interest

• Capacity to deliver change to meet identified needs

• Continuous improvement of services and challenging poor performance

• Understanding of when and how to address government initiatives

• EU-compliant processes

• Best practice procurement training

• Developing e-procurement processes

• Resources for identifying tendering opportunities

• Knowledge of public sector tendering legislation

• Weaknesses in any current mandatory policies (health and safety/environment/equal opportunities/etc)

For Private Sector Suppliers

PASS Mark Health Check – time well spent

The PASS Mark Health Check considers your company’s current organisational structure, strategies, processes, practices and related strengths and weaknesses in relation to public sector procurement. It results in a detailed PASS Mark Health Check Outcome Highlight Report (OHR) that outlines your strong points as well as those areas requiring attention. The OHR will also provide a roadmap in the form of a Project Initiation Document (PID) designed to give your company a more effective and efficient tendering process that will help you achieve even greater tendering success.
Think about business opportunities your company has lost out on and ask yourself if you’ve really learned the lessons. Don’t waste that experience, let the PASS Mark Health Check help you achieve success.

PASS Mark Health Check Review

The PASS Mark Health Check reviews your:

• Resources for identifying tendering opportunities

• Knowledge of public sector tendering legislation

• Tendering process controls

• Practices for responding to Expressions of Interest

• Weaknesses in any current mandatory policies (health and safety/environment/equal opportunities/etc)

• Presentation of tender response documentation

• Knowledge of your clients’ processes and practices, including their evaluation techniques

• Understanding of when and how to address government initiatives

No-Obligation Guarantee

After the PASS Mark Health Check is completed and your OHR is delivered, you are free to choose whether or not to progress with the recommendations it contains.

PASS In-House Presentations

PASS can also provide you with expert in-house training, ensuring that all your staff are fully aware of the latest legislation, guidance, processes and practices. Whatever your public procurement knowledge requirements are, the PASS Consultancy service can develop and present expert training and events specifically focused on such needs whenever and wherever you wish.

Whether training is required on issues affecting only local government – such as delivering the National Procurement Strategy for Local Government – or on specialist issues concerning particular government departments, PASS has the expertise to satisfy your requirements. We will be happy to discuss your requirements on a confidential, without commitment basis (the earlier you get involved the better the outcome) and, if you wish, provide you with a no-obligation fully costed proposal.

For Public Sector Buyers

PASS Best Practice Consultancy

The PASS Consultancy’s mission is to help you deliver the best in government procurement through identifying/applying:

• Practical solutions to improve performance

• Innovative approaches to knowledge transfer

• Joined-up government principles

• Improved performance indicators

• Strategic direction

• e-Government opportunities

• Change management principles to meet identified needs

• Continuous improvement of services and challenging of poor performance

• Sustainable development within decision-making processes and service delivery

• EU-compliant processes

• Best practice procurement training

PASS Framework Procurement

Manual & Strategy Guidance

Make this year the year you get your organisation’s procurement manual totally up to date. Unless you’re really on the ball, the chances are that with all the changes in public procurement currently taking place your existing documentation is out of date.

To check, ask yourself if your procurement manual addresses:

• The Freedom of Information Act and its impact upon public procurement

• The new Consolidated EU Procurement Directive 2004/18

• The latest guidance on the operation of framework agreements, e-tendering, e-auctions and e-procurement

• The EU’s guidance on environmental and social issues in procurement

• Government initiatives which have an impact upon public procurement, such as Best Value, Wider Markets and Partnering

• The latest guidance on gateway reviews, project management, risk allocation, small and medium-sized enterprises and intellectual property rights

The PASS team has developed a framework procurement manual and strategy guidance which addresses all these issues, as well as all the standard processes and practices involved in compliant procurement.

Whether your organisation is within central or local government or is elsewhere in the public sector, the PASS framework procurement manual and strategy guidance can be quickly adapted to suit your precise requirements, without breaking the bank.

If your organisation does not currently have a procurement manual, then the PASS team can provide you with one precisely tailored to your needs. If your organisation’s current manual is obsolete, then PASS can provide you with a new and compliant one.
Even better – as part of its service BiP will, at no cost, assign a PASS consultant to review your organisation’s current documentation and provide you with a free quotation for a new manual.

Why choose BiP?

BiP Solutions Ltd is the United Kingdom’s leading provider of public sector contract intelligence and has over 20 years’ experience and knowledge of public sector procurement and the good tendering practices that win tenders. BiP can provide you with access to the specialist skills of a wide range of public procurement professionals. The PASS team are highly skilled in their understanding of public procurement from both supplier and buyer perspectives and BiP’s strength in public procurement is acknowledged by the fact that over 1000 government procurement professionals use our electronic tendering service, Project.

Meet some of your PASS consultants...

Digby Barker digby.barker@bipsolutions.com

Drawing on his extensive background in defence, including posts in the UK Ministry of Defence HQ and HM Treasury, Digby specialises in helping companies to win and profit from defence business. His defence expertise includes research, operational/decision analysis, balance of investment studies and aspects of defence policy as well as the management of major equipment programmes in the Defence Procurement Agency, where he helped to put the principles of Smart Acquisition into practice.

John Colling john.colling@bipsolutions.com

Having joined the Treasury procurement team in 1987 on secondment from HM Customs & Excise, John was head of procurement policy from May 1990 to February 2002. As Director of a joint unit in the Office of Government Commerce (OGC) from April 2000, he was responsible to Treasury Ministers for government procurement policy and law; for helping departments and other public authorities to comply appropriately; and for coordinating responses to infraction cases by the European Commission.

Martin Compton martin.compton@bipsolutions.com

Martin is a procurement professional trained by the Ford Motor Company. As an innovator, motivator and experienced negotiator, he is a progressive procurement practitioner with supply chain skills and extensive public and private sector experience, both in the UK and abroad.

Colin M Cram FCIPS colin.cram@bipsolutions.com

Colin has held senior positions in public sector procurement for the past 25 years,
including central government, higher education and local authorities. He has been responsible throughout for initiating and implementing procurement strategies and outsourcings and creating and reengineering procurement organisations. Positions held include Director of the North Western Universities Purchasing Consortium, Head of Contracts at the Benefits Agency, Director of the Research Councils’ Procurement Organisation and Procurement Adviser to the City of York Council. He was a founder member of the Central Unit on Purchasing, the forerunner of the Office of Government Commerce.

Peter Howarth peter.howarth@bipsolutions.com

Peter was recently on secondment from Suffolk County Council to the Improvement and Development Agency where he worked as a member of the team developing an e-procurement portal for local government. He is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply and Chairman of its Local Authority Committee and a member of the SOPO Executive Committee. Peter is an adviser to NePP and was recently appointed Director of SBV Ltd.

Gareth Jones gareth.jones@bipsolutions.com

Gareth has worked in the procurement field since 1971, the greater part of his career being in the public sector, including 22 years in healthcare purchasing. In 1997 Gareth became DETR’s first Head of Procurement. Since leaving the public service he has acted as a consultant to the Inland Revenue, the House of Commons, the Scottish Parliament, Nirex, Sapient plc and Governetz Ltd. Gareth is a noted change manager with highly respected motivational, training and teaching skills.

Eddie Regan eddie.regan@bipsolutions.com

Eddie is BiP Solutions’ Senior Procurement Consultant and frequently assists public sector organisations with clarification and interpretation of EU Directives and a wide variety of legislative issues. Eddie is also lead consultant on BiP’s PASS Mark Health Check, an evaluation technique that helps identify how organisations in both the public and private sectors can develop more effective processes in respect of all aspects of public sector contracting, including the tendering process.

David Wright david.wright@bipsolutions.com

David is a procurement, finance and supply chain consultant who has worked in both the public and private sectors for over 20 years. He is a member of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants and has a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Lincoln. He studied for a Masters Degree at the University of Nottingham where he specialised in contract law and the law relating to regulated procurement. Recently, David was responsible for drafting procurement legislation for the Government of Albania under the Aquis (European Commission) initiative.

For further information on any of the PASS Consultancy offerings, contact our Client Services Team on 0141 332 8247, email pass@bipsolutions.com, visit www.bipsolutions.com/pass/ or complete the information request form overleaf.