Commercial

Executive agency responsible for the “land arm” of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has been sold for £140m, it was announced today

The Institute for Government (IfG) agrees with Margaret Hodge’s statement that open book accounting is essential for tackling issues in the government’s contract management, as outlined in a recent NAO report.

The civil service has allowed large companies to become “quasi-monopoly suppliers” with too much contractual advantage, say the NAO today.

The Home Office has re-appointed Serco to operate, maintain and manage Yarl’s Wood IRC, despite an ongoing investigation with the Serious Fraud Office.

Despite a public commitment to open contracting, the UK government has not signed up to a new open contracting data standard that was launched globally today. 

Outsourcing group Serco is selling off the majority of its private sector business process outsourcing (BPO) companies to raise funds and focus on supplying for governments, according to a stock exchange announcement by the firm earlier this week.

The civil service must foster “a more vibrant, competitive marketplace” of government contractors and rebuild its skills in contract management, the government’s outgoing chief operating officer Stephen Kelly has told CSW.

Civil servants working in the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ’s) shared services centres face redundancies and office closures following a seven-year contract to outsource services to Shared Services Connected Limited (SSCL), says Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). 

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced the three private sector companies who have been offered contracts to deliver its £164bn equipment plan. 

John Manzoni, the chief executive of the Major Projects Authority, has been named as the new chief executive of the civil service.

The government is considering extending the Social Value Act to include goods, works, infrastructure and public assets, under a Cabinet Office review.

Senior civil servants often “don’t know what’s going on” with contracts held by their departments and thus spot problems too late, Joshua Reddaway, the National Audit Office’s director for commercial and contracting, has warned.