The House of Commons Public Accounts Committee report outlines five key recommendations for improving public sector procurement, including enhancing transparency, improving contract management, fostering competition, increasing government expertise in contracting, and ensuring high ethical standards from contractors. The recommendations emphasize the need for open-book accounting, effective governance, and better performance monitoring to achieve greater accountability and value from public-private contracts. Overall, the document highlights the challenges faced in public procurement and the importance of adopting strategic approaches to enhance service delivery and efficiencies.

1. “Adding value to public procurement”
Partnering Approaches
APM Value Management Specific Interest Group
& Leeds Metropolitan University’s
MSc [Strategic] Project Management

2. 2
House of Commons
Committee of Public Accounts
Contracting out public
services to the private
sector
Forty-seventh Report of Session 2013–14

3. The House of Commons, Public Accounts
committee report 47
Alan Munro: Contributor to 4Ps & Local Partnerships
Reference:
The House of Commons Committee of Public
Accounts. Contracting out public services to the
private sector. Forty Seventh Report of Session
2013-14
Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed 26th February 2014
Made 5 recommendations...

4. The House of Commons, Public Accounts
committee report 47
1. Transparency: There needs to be far greater visibility to
government, parliament and the public about suppliers’
performance, costs, revenues and profits.
2. Contract management and delivery: Central government’s
management of private sector contracts has too often been
very weak.
3. Competition: There is not enough effective competition in the
market for government business.
4. Capability: Government does not currently have the expertise
to extract the greatest value from contracting to private
providers.
5. Public service standards: Contractors have not consistently
demonstrated the high ethical standards expected in the
conduct of public business.

5. Transparency and openness
Mandate the use of open-book accounting for contracts above an
agreed level of expenditure: (nice idea how practical?)
develop guidance for departments on how and when to use open-book
accounting
explore how the FOI regime could be extended to cover contracts with
private providers, scope for an FOI provision to be included in
standard contract terms; (why is this not the case anyway?)
that the Comptroller &Auditor General has access rights to contractors.
Neither the Cabinet Office nor departments should routinely use
commercial confidentiality as a reason for withholding information
about contracts with private providers.
The Cabinet Office should set out a plan for departments to publish
routinely standard information on their contracts with private
providers including, for example, contract duration, value and
performance against key indicators.

6. Contract management and delivery: Central
government’s management of private sector
contracts has too often been very weak.
Cabinet Office to: provide guidance to departments on how to ensure
that contractors, of any size, have effective governance and
internal controls over all aspects of their operations;
& should provide guidance and support to ensure the terms of
contracts properly protect both the taxpayers’ interest and the
service users’ legitimate expectations.
Seek to standardise the information that government requests from
contractors as far as possible and improve the consistency, accuracy
and efficiency of information collection; periodically review &
update the performance regime of their major contracts to ensure
that they reward or penalise behaviour as appropriate; (an
appropriate incentive regime)

7. ..Contract management and delivery: Central
government’s management of private sector
contracts has too often been very weak.
Cabinet Office to: To encourage good performance, departments
should look at the scope for more ways to share the savings from
efficiency gains with contractors; (gainshare)
Depts should ensure that the penalties (!) imposed on contractors who
fail to deliver reflect the full cost to the taxpayer; &
Depts should make full use of their ability to take into account past
performance on similar contracts when re-tendering or contracting
for new services. (NB: unsure how legally sound that is)
Assessment of contractors’ performance should also cover their
corporate social responsibility policies and their record on corporate
taxation.

8. Competition: There is not enough effective
competition in the market for government business.
In the short term, departments should review contracts to ensure that,
in the event of supplier failure, contingency plans are in place for
continuity of services, and that government is protected financially.
They should explore all options for amending existing contracts
where necessary; (change protocols)
In the longer term, ..do more to encourage diverse markets. For
example, departments could split up contracts (LOTS)
and set out specific actions to encourage SMEs and new entrants in
particular markets, either as primary bidders, sub-contractors or
part of consortia; and
Depts should increase competitive pressure by reducing contract
duration and extending contracts only by exception—balancing the
need for stability and incentives for contractors to invest in
improvement with the scope for savings from increased
competition. (Interesting concept – increasing contract duration
and early extensions of contracts can realise savings and
efficiencies)

9. 4: Capability: Government does not currently have
the expertise to extract the greatest value from
contracting to private providers.
Recommendations:
• that there is appropriate Accounting Officer & board level
engagement in major contracting decisions; (Governance)
• and should invest in developing experience and expertise in
commercial issues & contract management; (commercial
awareness)
• and should explicitly require departments to ensure that those who
are responsible for day-to-day contract management have sufficient
authority, commercial skills and experience. This includes having the
expertise to put open-book accounting into practice;
• and should strengthen the Crown Representative initiative, ensuring
sufficient coverage across government bodies and major suppliers,
providing them with the time and support necessary.

10. Public service standards: Contractors have not
consistently demonstrated the high ethical standards
expected in the conduct of public business.
Recommendations:
• Depts should have contracts that require suppliers to have whistle-
blowing policies in place.
• The Cabinet Office needs to be clearer with firms that they are
expected to behave with the same standards of honesty, integrity
and fairness that apply to the public sector itself.
• expectations which include transparency, the treatment of service
users and employees, and ethics; and
• The Cabinet Office and government bodies should ensure that
government’s expectations are then built into standard contract
terms.

11. Typical services/courses procured
(design & delivery) by local public
bodies over the last 18 months:
Commissioning
Contract Reviews (mini gateways)
Negotiation & Commercial Skills
Contract Management
Innovation Tools & Techniques
Market Analysis
Advanced Procurement
Specification Writing
Supplier Relationship Management
(including category management)
Prime Drivers for these
courses:
• deliver ‘real’
savings/efficiencies
• standardising
processes & systems
• up-skill officers
particularly with
commercial skills
Setting the National Scene

12. Key lessons learned from these in the last 12 months!
......................
40+ Staffordshire Police
100+ Leeds CC (Open
Course)
20+ Portsmouth CC
NE Lincolnshire Council
80+ Staffordshire CC (Open Course)
200+ Essex CC
100+ LB Waltham Forest (Open
Course)
40 + Cumbria CC
Contract Reviews, Contract
Management, and Negotiation
National picture
Cabinet Office: Crown Commercial Services earlier
Circa £260bn public sector contracts not delivering benefits
on scale anticipated (NAO) (£187bn on goods and services)
Local Government picture
Real savings – the only game in town!
Delivered services/training to:

13. Observations – not so good practice
Governance
• Left to the contract manager
• No corporate director engagement / visibility
• No stakeholder engagement (internal & external)
• No meetings
Continuity
• No handover – procurement team walk away
• No Contract Operations Manual for:
• Continuing application of the contract
• Continuity/succession planning
Team Development
• In the dinner queue – no experience / no training
• No understanding/different views of the contract(s)
• Replicating the supplier’s workforce/doing supplier’s work – legal ‘state
aid’ risk

14. Observations – not so good practice
Monitoring Performance
• Left to the contractor / no supplier engagement
• No audit of supplier performance
• Payment in advance / no checking of invoice – automatic
• Contracts lost – locate them and keep master copy in central
location
• If in a partnership contract, allow the supplier to innovate
• Remember it’s your contract – not the supplier’s
Financial Control
• No view of whole life costs / renewal by default!
• Continuing use of the payment mechanism – especially the
application of incentives
• No Variation tracking and the use of change control protocols
• When the tender was won the provider submitted a cost model
• You need to review this as markets evolve and costs change

15. Observations – not so good practice
Financial Control
• No understanding of private sector perspective/aims/motivations
• What income has grown for them?
• What has been the impact of indexation?
• What costs have they saved?
• No understanding of what elements of specification and risk can be
removed/refined to drive down cost
• Lack of understanding of and justification for central overheads
• Awareness of what you are paying for - are you sure they are not
using equipment and staff from your contract on other contracts?
• Need to become an "Intelligent customer"
Client Power – the supplier wants your continuing
business - negotiate

17. Theory & Research
John Heathcote Senior Lecturer at Leeds Met
University (Leeds Beckett)
Course Leader for MSc [Strategic] Project
Management & MSc Contract Management
And our message to students is:
- Based on our own (Action!) research
- & says whilst tricky in practice, the principles once
enacted are understood, those principles are....

18. Access to the supply chain
Partnerships are not limited to large tier 1s
contractors at Local Government level,
At least others can & do bid,
but their success is low
And few understand the principles being applied.
A major barrier is the volume of paperwork,
& any understanding of PQQ (Pre-Qualification
Questionnaires) & their purpose.

19. Access to the supply chain
Tier 2 SMEs’ poor understanding of PQQ & partnering
won’t matter if we just stick with tier 1s.
Who will manage them!
They might, & they also don’t (delegating the
responsibility, we have a contracting culture of it's
them!*)
but mostly they are managed to maximise profit..
* Which starts with the Client!

20. Contractual behaviour
But before we start blaming tier 1s for being
contractual, let’s consider how that came about..
The NEC form was resisted by lawyers.
The Client sets the rules, witting or unwittingly.
The significance of NEC3 asking for back to back is
under-emphasised.

21. The criticality of Agency
Structure or Agent?
When we look at contractual issues, we seek to do two separate things at
once:
Structure, the contract, the clauses, the procedures..
And the enactment of these, through the persons involved, or Agent.
Our research tells us the ‘quality’ of the Agent is highly emphasised by
respondent practitioners, at site level, at the level of named person
(Engineer) to the contract.
Badly written contracts work well because of good agents. Well written
contracts go wrong because of bad agents.

22. There must be a programme approach
When we know what we are doing,
And what we are doing next,
And why* we are doing those things, (the benefits*)
and how they fit together.
Partnering seeks to add value through greater co-
ordination, less waste
& you cannot do that without a programme
management approach!

23. & Programmes need strategies
For Client organisations, to know why they need
to do something,
They need to know why, what the benefits will
be.. (the value)
To be able..
To decide whether they are worth doing
To be able to discuss it with the Partner!

24. Strategies should add value
When we partner..
We should be talking with one another about value adding, and
more value adding together.. (& removing risk!)
Not just, can you move that transit from the entrance way!
Experts can offer useful advice.
The existence of this value innovation, largely remains
circumstantial, our research shows, it happens..
In spite of the contract,
Is prevented by the structure of the arrangement, (normalisation of
deviance)
Happens in secret,

25. Our research Concludes that
There’s a value/transaction disconnect..
This happens even in the 6th Ed of the APM’s BoK, value is a subset of
requirements..
What do you want? (Transaction) / Rather than what represents value!
“How many beds/how do we improve capacity”
“How big a building/how do we improve utilisation”
“How many grades A-C/Lifelong learners”
& you need a contract to seal the disconnect!
“I’ve just done what you contracted me to”

26. Managing Value needs more than one
element to work reasonably well
The strategy needs formulating, and articulating, & you need to
mean it. (So value can be defined)
You need programme management (& a picture of it)
You need to be able to measure enough to verify that value is
being added, measure too much & the wrong thing(s), and the
performance indicators will BECOME the project.
You need Agents that understand partnering principles & will
defend it.
Tick the Box!

27. Managing Value needs more than one element to work
reasonably wellNow we can look at the
elements of a GOOD partnering contract...
The Agents are named, perhaps called framework managers (Single point of integrative responsibility)
The measurement is simple, reflects value/work done & true cost.
The exclusivity is protected. (The organisational stakeholders are informed.)
Appointment is waste-less, ideally call off.
Prices are visible, known.
Issues/Problems on both sides are raised, raise-able & addressed.
Innovation/Improvement is formally encouraged, enacted & tested. Including the framework itself.
More than one supplier is used, facilitates benchmark of absorption accounting SMEs.
Also Benchmark, to prior, the others & market performance, compare apples with!
Performance is rewarded by more (or less) programme work.. And only this.
Right sized supplier, for the job they are doing in the Programme.
Usual other QA considerations are verified prior to commencement.
Change it!

28. Some Conclusions
There’s no appreciable difference in practice between..
Public sector contracting and any other commercial supply chain..
Both are good & bad.
The principles involved apply to all. All sectors wrestle with these
issues. There’s disconnect in our fragmentation of ‘system’
And no element is deliberately evil!
Our stereotypes are just that, stereotypes.
Design your contract with the problems you hope to fix with it, in mind!
Getting the Private sector to do what the public use to, will produce the same results .
Know what value is, and know where the risk (to value) is!
PFI PPP won’t be going away, even with its flaws it is too useful

29. Partnerships that work: Our exemplar
John Phillips: BAM Construction Director
Paul Riley: Head of Capital Projects, Leeds
Metropolitan University
Partnership agreement
‘ESTATES’ the client
BAM the contractor

30. Strategy & Value
Early involvement is further enhanced if the partner (& the Client)
understand that projects go ahead only to add value,
And in Organisations value is delivered through strategy...
At Leeds Met Estates’ overhead is a significant cost to the Uni
operational running costs, & this is translated simply into:
- Space utilisation (improved by quality & flexibility of
spaces) &
- Running costs (Most influence by the size of the
Estate)

31. 31

32. 32

33. Early Involvement

34. Innovation, Better solutions

35. An integrated supply chain
• Learning
• Customer service & client processes,
requirements (live HE sites)
• Remove performance blockages (Concrete
Clean machine)

36. Size of the client team

37. Speed of mobilisation
Removing the procurement, time.. Waste
Photo of tender
and site work

38. Design:
Modular
building

39. Programme
EfficiencyOne CDM co-ordinator
Site coordination &
next project/overlapping planning/shared resources

40. Risk managed out!
Shared risk log.
critical to partnership working.
And.. Most risk once identified can be removed.

41. LearningVia risks
Through consultation..

42. Budgets more predictable
Rates for one job utilised for the next..
Same supply chain, improves cost estimation
0
25
50
75
100
125
April May June July

43. Involvement in the Eng Spec.
A live document,
Subject to change to
improve value to the organisation,
its Estate operational costs..
Not a fixed set of solutions, that
were correct from a 1999
perspective!

44. Viability of Projects
One of our projects was simply not viable.
Too expensive,
BAM proposed using BIM to remove the risk pricing,
this cost of mitigation, dramatically reduced the
capital cost, making the project viable.

45. The Agents
trust?

46. Trust, but verify
If you cannot measure value,
Or benchmark your unit costs,
You cannot demonstrate..
And it’ll matter at some point, because trust is fickle.
There’s some headline indicators that value is added here..
Estates team volume; Speed to mobilisation; Availability of
University; Operational cost changes; Degree of Quality grade
facilities.
& also the detail is reportable at project level.
Partnership advantages will be subject to scrutiny.

47. Question time!
The Panel Members:
- Merv Wyeth: APM Programme Mgt SiG Chair.
- Ian Viveash: Wipro Integrated Value Management director.
- Andrew Macey: 4Ps & Local Government partnership
advisor/trainer.
preceding speakers...
- Alan Munro: Government Practitioner
- Paul Riley: Client Practitioner
- John Phillips: Contractor Practitioner

48. This presentation was delivered at an
APM event
To find out more about upcoming
events please visit our website
www.apm.org.uk/events