Follow-up on Transforming contract management inquiry
Closed
What the inquiry looked at
“Following the discovery of serious anomalies in the billing practices under the Ministry of Justice's electronic monitoring contracts with G4S and Serco, Government commissioned a series of reviews of contract management across departments. These found widespread, consistent and long standing problems. As a result, the Cabinet Office requested all departments prepare contract management improvement plans. The Committee held two hearings on this matter in 2014, the first examining contract management improvement plans in the Home Office and the Ministry of Justice and the second looking more widely at Government’s response and the changes being led by the Cabinet Office and the new Crown Commercial Service. The report was published on Wednesday 10 December 2014. Inquiry: Transforming contract management Home Office and Ministry of Justice This inquiry assessed approaches to contract management in the Ministry of Justice and Home Office including: the responses to the recent internal reviews of contract management problems; governance and accountability arrangements; contract management capability and management information; and whether good practice was being actively identified and shared. It scrutinised what went wrong with contract management in the two departments and their efforts to improve it; and examined what more government could do to help departments improve their contract management performance. Cabinet Office This inquiry focused on contract management across the whole of government. It looked at lessons from the overbilling and corporate renewal episodes; commitments to tackle long-standing problems with contract management across government; and the role of the new Crown Commercial Service in supporting this agenda.”
The committee's words, from the inquiry page on parliament.uk ↗.
What it found
In 2014 the previous Committee concluded that government would not achieve value for money from its contracts unless it improved its contract management. While government has made encouraging progress in some areas, the pace of change is disappointing.
We expect the Cabinet Office to raise its game, be more assertive and challenge those departments that are lagging behind, as well as supporting them where necessary.
Given the increasing scale and complexity of government’s contracts, departments need to focus on the governance, systems and assurance frameworks around their major contracts, as well as recruiting more commercial staff. The government also needs to tackle the longstanding problem of a civil service culture that does not place enough value on commercial expertise. We expect the Cabinet Office and individual departments to accelerate the pace of change and be able to demonstrate tangible improvements by the end of this parliament, so that we see a civil service which is first rate at managing commercial contracts. In the meantime we will continue to hold departments and their contractors to account for their performance, with a particular interest in safeguarding the interests of vulnerable users of public services.
What the government said
No government response is linked to this report.
How the inquiry ran
Each dot is a dated item listed on this page, from the inquiry's opening on 5 January 2016 to its close on 12 May 2016.
- Oral evidence 8 Feb 2016
- Report 23 Mar 2016
- Correspondence 19 Apr 2016
What it recommended
The committee's recommendations are not listed here yet. Read them in 32nd Report - Transforming contract management: progress review ↗ on parliament.uk.
Evidence
Oral evidence sessions 1
- 8 Feb 2016No witnesses recordedparliament.uk ↗