Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 10
10
Accepted
Lack of clear accountability and ownership for digital procurement improvements across government.
Recommendation
We observed that it felt like procurement and digital commercial activity sits in a lot of places and different organisations. We therefore asked whether there was a clear sense of who was ultimately responsible for delivering the improvements to digital procurement that government needs to make, and whether Departments shared our concerns that procurement and digital commercial activity does not sit with anyone as a number one priority, and that there is therefore a lack of accountability. The Cabinet Office told us it could “entirely understand why you would draw that from the [NAO] report” and that “ultimately, the buck stops with the Cabinet Office, because we are responsible for all procurement”.14 However, the Cabinet Office also told us that the new Centre of Excellence will have “reporting lines” to both the Cabinet Office “and, ultimately to” DSIT.15 But ultimately the Centre of Excellence may only have an advisory role and digital procurement may still be led by non–digital specialists. The new Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence
Government Response Summary
The government accepts the recommendation, stating it has been implemented with the launch of the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence (DCCoE). The DCCoE is a joint team working to formalise roles and responsibilities between digital and commercial teams, addressing concerns about fragmented accountability.
Government Response
Accepted
HM Government
Accepted
1.1 The government agrees with the Committee’s recommendation. Recommendation implemented 1.2 The Cabinet Office and DSIT have launched the Digital Commercial Centre of Excellence (DCCoE) as a joint co-funded team, housed in DSIT and reporting to the Government Chief Technology Officer. The team is now working at pace to address and deliver the recommendations contained within this report as set out below. 1.3 The DCCoE is working to formalise the roles and responsibilities between digital teams and commercial teams when managing supplier relationships, ensuring that we leverage the functional model, and existing skills and capabilities across government.