News
Carillion: Two years on
A new report from the Institute for Government points out that the current Government has consistently not taken up the Cabinet Office’s new guidelines to the way contracts such as that held with Carillion are designed, awarded and managed
The report finds that departments regularly ignore the guidelines “…around publication of commercial ‘pipelines’, about how risk is allocated between government and suppliers, and how bids for contracts are selected. This means that the government is still signing risky contracts which may well collapse”.
The report also notes that those guidelines don’t apply to local government and public bodies, including the NHS, despite those organisations being responsible for over £100bn of procurement spending.
The report calls on the government to:
- Name a Cabinet Office minister who is responsible for improvements in outsourcing.
- Use this summer’s spending review to give the Cabinet Office funding to support and scrutinise contracting by departments.
- Extend contracting training to local government, the NHS, and other public bodies.
- Equip the new Audit, Reporting and Governance Authority with the statutory powers recommended by the Kingman review, including to force changes in company accounts rather than applying to court to do so.