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Supply Chain

Resilience, stocks and supplies: public procurement during the pandemic

When COVID hit, governments had to address a series of colossal procurement challenges – sourcing the services and goods required to keep people safe as global supply lines failed. At […]

UK government must improve commercial transparency and market knowledge, watchdog says

The UK government’s “established processes” for commercial contracts lacked resilience under the pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic and it must improve transparency and its understanding of markets, the independent public […]

The top five threats to government procurement integrity

Government procurement teams are responsible for managing billions of pounds of public expenditure, and taxpayers want more transparency on how their money is being spent. However, experts estimate that procurement errors, […]

ECB launches SupTech procurement

The European Central Bank (ECB) is stepping up its investment in SupTech – technology for supervisory agencies – with a planned spend of more than £200m (US$276m). SupTech has growing […]

UK to score ‘social value’ in awarding contracts

The UK government has announced new measures to deliver social value through public procurement. The model, announced by the Cabinet Office last month, will require government departments to assess and […]

South African president condemns COVID procurements corruption

South African president Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned corruption in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) party related to the procurement of COVID-19 equipment, and suggested addressing the problem through transparency, […]

UK to reverse outsourcing of probation service

All probation services in England and Wales are to be brought back under public ownership and control, reversing the Ministry of Justice’s (MoJ) six-year programme to outsource delivery of most […]

UK officials’ focus on price damages IT procurements, report finds

The UK civil service focuses too closely on price in procurement decisions, a new report has claimed, and “lacks the capability and capacity to fully understand” how new IT systems […]

UK lockdown squeezes out cash, but slows progress on payments reforms

The economic regulator for the UK’s £75 trillion (US$93.3 trillion) payment systems industry has announced a “revised timetable” for its work priorities as the coronavirus pandemic spreads. The Payment Systems […]

Case study: driving culture change at the Crown Commercial Service

“Our vision is to put finance at the heart of decision making – driving the agenda, not just keeping score”, head of the UK government finance function, Mike Driver, said […]