Last week, the government effectively reneged on these measures when Francis Maude unveiled the new shape of central government print procurement: a £250m contract with Williams Lea. Naturally, this raised questions, in addition to eyebrows, that nobody at the Cabinet Office seems willing or able to answer.
Will all central government print over £10,000 be tendered on the Contracts Finder site by Williams Lea? Not a chance. Will suppliers of government print to Williams Lea be paid within the government’s "advisory" 30-day guideline? Doubtful. Will rebates now be applied on the £60m-plus annual government spend? Your guess is as good as mine.
I have no problem with outsourcing government contracts because, frankly, anything that saves public money is in all our interests. However, I do disagree with hypocrisy and what to me looks like a one-fingered-salute to print’s SMEs. Perhaps there was a note on the February announcement warning print contracts for central government weren’t included?
While we await a meaningful response from the government, I offer you this crumb of (dis)comfort: technically, the promise to remove PQQs has been kept – you won’t need to fill one in for central government print contracts below £100,000 anymore, you’ll need to get on Williams Lea’s supplier roster instead.
Simon Nias, news editor, PrintWeek
Government U-turn on print tenders a blow to our SMEs
In February, we reported the launch of a raft of measures intended to make it easier for SMEs to do business with central government. These included a Contracts Finder website, which would feature all public sector contracts over 10,000, and the elimination of PQQs for all public sector procurement under 100,000.
