Central government department contract management skills have been slammed in a report from Parliament’s influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC).
The government’s contracting problems are widespread, long-standing and rooted in the culture of the civil service, according to the MPs.
Civil servants are criticized for having prioritised the tendering process. A contract management post award was considered by them to be ‘mechanical and unimportant’.
The PAC says the government would not achieve value for money until it paid more attention to the management of its contracts.
PAC chair Margaret Hodge said: ‘Departments have taken their eye off the ball and placed too much trust in contractors and relied too much on the information contractors supply. Contracts need to be managed at a sufficiently senior level, with strong accountability in place, by people with the right commercial expertise.’
The MPs said despite efforts by the Cabinet Office to increase commercial expertise to compete with the private sector and raise personal accountability for contracting failure, there was ‘a long way to go’.
Contractors are also criticized for allegedly not showing an appropriate duty of care to the taxpayer and users of public services. The government’s approach to contracting gives too great an advantage to suppliers and sound commercial relationships need to be rebalanced.