Central Governments Management of Service Contracts
Central Governments Management of Service Contracts

Author: Great Britain. National Audit Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2008

Total Pages: 44

ISBN-13: 9780102954487

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This NAO report (HCP 65, session 2008-09, ISBN 9780102954487), examines how well central government organisations are managing their service contracts, assessed against the good practice framework for contract management. A further examination was done into the effectiveness of the Office of Government Commerce in supporting central government to improve contract management. The NAO has focused on contracts for information and communication technology, facilities management and business process outsourcing, where the contract had been signed and the service was up and running. In the 2007-08 period, central government spent over £12 billion on service contracts primarily in the areas of information and communications technology, facilities management and business process outsourcing. In total the NAO estimates that £240 million was spent on managing service contracts in the period 2007-08. Delivery of public services, protection against service failure and achievement of value for money are all dependent on effective contract management. The NAO has set out a number of findings and recommendations, including: that contract management is not always accorded the priority it deserves; that less than half the organisations surveyed had an individual with overall responsibility for contract management; that some contracts had taken several years before a proper system of management was actually in place, including resources and performance measures; that one-quarter of comercial directors/heads of procurement rated the level of resources allocated to contract management as poor; that central government do not routinely test their service contracts and good practice risk management practices are not being consistently applied. For the Office of Government Commerce the NAO found that: limited guidance is available on contract management; that central government organisations identified a need for better training for their contract managers; that no cross-government contract management community exists and that monitoring and managing major suppliers had focused mainly on the IT sector.

Central Government's Management of Service Contracts
Central Government's Management of Service Contracts

Author: House of Commons Public Accounts Committ

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2009-04-28

Total Pages: 40

ISBN-13: 9780215529763

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In 2007-08, central government spent over £12 billion on service contracts, primarily in the areas of information and communication technology, facilities management and business process outsourcing, and an estimated £240 million on managing these contracts. In most cases central government monitors the performance of its suppliers, but it makes limited use of financial incentives to encourage suppliers to improve performance and does not always apply financial penalties where suppliers under-performed. Testing of value for money of ongoing services and contract changes is variable. Planning and governance is one of the weaker areas of contract management. Less than half the organisations surveyed had an individual with overall responsibility for contract management, and there was no documented plan for managing 28 per cent of contracts. In addition, many contracts do not have in place some or all of the elements of good practice risk management. No commercial director/head of procurement rated the level of resources allocated to the management of their major contracts as 'good', and 22 per cent of contract managers considered they did not have time to perform their responsibilities well. Most contract managers had undertaken relevant training, although 60 per cent of organisations did not provide a structured training programme for their staff. The Office of Government Commerce is to issue further guidance on contract management in April 2009, building on the good practice framework it published jointly with the National Audit Office, and it is working to improve the provision of training on contract management. It is also extending its monitoring of major suppliers to government, and is reviewing recent examples of service failure where contractors failed to perform to identify lessons for the future.

Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies
Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies

Author: William Sims Curry

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2016-04-28

Total Pages: 495

ISBN-13: 1317221028

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This second edition of Contracting for Services in State and Local Government Agencies provides state-of-the-art tools for best practice in the procurement of services at state and local levels, from initial stages through to completion. Including lively case studies and research conducted with state and local agencies across the United States, this book provides management advice and tips on compliance to reduce costs, select the best-qualified contractors, manage contractors’ performance, and prevent corruption and waste. Utilizing the results of new research in all fifty states, author William Sims Curry offers updated best-practice documents, methodologies, and templates including: a Request for Proposal (RFP), a scorecard for proposals to select the best-qualified contractor, a toolkit for meeting socioeconomic contracting goals without compromising price, quality, or on-time delivery, and a Model Services Contract (MSC). Special consideration is given to obtaining services and products in states of emergency. Several additional resources for practitioners are available online, including sample contracts and a straightforward, inexpensive tool for tracking contractors’ progress and cost management. The roadmap and templates contained in this book and available online to readers will prove essential to state and local government agency contracting professionals and other officials and employees called upon to participate in the drafting of solicitations, writing sole source justifications, writing scopes of work, serving on advance contract planning and source selection teams, recommending award of contracts, or assisting in the management of those contracts.

Open public services
Open public services

Author: Great Britain: Cabinet Office

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2011-07-11

Total Pages: 60

ISBN-13: 9780101814522

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This White paper puts forward a comprehensive policy framework across public services. It sets out the principles for reforming public services and how they apply to existing policies. It also, crucially, outlines a range of wider ambitions for further consultation. The Government plans to follow five principles for modernising public services: wherever possible choice will be increased; public services should be decentralised to the lowest possible level; public services should be open to a range of providers; ensuring fair access to public services and that public services should be accountable to users and to taxpayers. In applying these principles it is recognised that different public services have different characteristics and the proposals are tailored accordingly. In essence, three different categories of public services are identified: individual services; neighbourhood services; and commissioned services. For individual services the aim is to put power in the hands of the people who use them; for neighbourhood services the aim is to put power in the hands of the elected councils; and for commissioned services, the intention is to open up and, where appropriate, decentralise commissioning to ensure greater quality and diversity.

HC 585 - Transforming Contract Management
HC 585 - Transforming Contract Management

Author: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Committee of Public Accounts

Publisher: The Stationery Office

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 32

ISBN-13: 0215078950

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The private sector delivers complex services on behalf of the public sector, to the value of around £90 billion, which represents half of public sector expenditure on goods and services. The public needs to have confidence that contracts are managed well by both government departments and the contractors themselves. The case of G4S and Serco overcharging the Ministry of Justice for years on electronic tagging contracts was the starkest illustration of both contractors' failure to work in the public interest and government failure to safeguard taxpayers' money. The electronic tagging case has served as a belated wake up call and, led by the Cabinet Office, the Government is now working to improve the way it manages its suppliers and contracted-out providers of public services. This report sets out four key areas for attention: contractors have not shown an appropriate duty of care in the use of public funds; quasi-monopoly suppliers squeeze out competition, often from smaller companies with specific experience; the way government contracts gives too much advantage to the contractors.

Strengthening the Ombudsman Institution in Asia
Strengthening the Ombudsman Institution in Asia

Author: Asian Development Bank

Publisher: Asian Development Bank

Published: 2011-06-01

Total Pages: 441

ISBN-13: 9290923415

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Accountability is essential for good governance, and in many Asian countries the ombudsman is the key accountability institution. Originating in the West, the concept of the ombudsman arrived relatively late in Asia. Yet more and more ombudsman offices are being established in Asia, and they play a critical role in the fight against incompetence and injustice on the part of government officials. This report presents in-depth research on Asian ombudsmen, with a focus on best practices and emerging issues, especially in the context of the new public management, and includes recommendations to policy makers. It will be a valuable resource for scholars, ombudsmen, and anyone else interested in this vital institution.