Colin Cram | Procurement Insights

Browsing All posts tagged under »Colin Cram«

Welcome to The New Procurement Insights EU Edition

May 23, 2013

This past year has been somewhat of a watershed year for the Procurement Insights blog as well as its sister radio show The PI Window on the World. For example, we surpassed the 1,000 post mark with the blog that was launched with little fanfare in May 2007. That is a lot of “virtual ink” […]

Does the Ministry of Justice Need to Spend £675m on a Project to Collect Outstanding Fines? by Colin Cram

May 10, 2013

How often should major projects never have been started? I can think of several and there may be another about to start. The Ministry of Justice is planning to spend £675m ($1bn) on a compliance and enforcement project/contract to collect outstanding fines http://justice.governmentcomputing.com/news/moj-issues-675m-contract-for-compliance-and-enforcement-services which, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation last year, amount to almost […]

World Class Procurement by Colin Cram

May 6, 2013

What is world class procurement? That is the question that was asked last week at a conference that I was chairing. The topic was world class procurement in the NHS. Some people would argue that if an organisation has efficient and modern processes and procedures, category management, a highly qualified workforce, good information and performance […]

Procurement Fraud by Colin Cram FCIPS

April 25, 2013

Editor’s NOTE: As a follow-up to my April 23rd post “Where did purchasing go wrong: Businessman sells £50 Million of fake bomb detection equipment to governments around the world,” contributing columnist Colin Cram has by way of today’s post provided his take on the James McCormick case. The recent fraud case where businessman, James McCormick […]

Restructuring Government Procurement by Colin Cram

April 19, 2013

The UK government appears to be moving towards centralising civil government procurement in all but name. It was less than 3 months ago that I proposed* to a UK Parliamentary committee (the Public Administration Select Committee) the creation of a ‘Crown Procurement Service’ for the whole of the public sector. This proposal, based on my […]

Margaret Thatcher: An Insider’s Perspective by Colin Cram (Part 2)

April 15, 2013

Editor’s Note: Part 1 of this series was posted on Thursday, April 11th My report on procurement proposed more outsourcing and a team was set up to drive this forward. However, the government was unable to overcome resistance to it. By the time John Major had taken over, in 1991, my estimate was that much […]

Margaret Thatcher: An Insider’s Perspective by Colin Cram (Part 1)

April 11, 2013

In 1980 I joined the Cabinet Office in 1980 as part of a team set up to support the efficiency and reform agenda of Margaret Thatcher’s newly elected government and to supplement the work of the then Sir Derek Rayner, the Prime Minister’s efficiency adviser. Continuing in that role within the Cabinet Office and then […]

Review of UK Central Government Procurement Spend by Colin Cram

April 2, 2013

Whilst the UK government seems to be re-doubling its efforts to improve procurement by central government, the impact of the changes so far have been limited according to one Parliamentary body. Whilst parliamentary debates between the government and opposition parties tend to hit the headlines, much of the hard work of ensuring good quality legislation […]

Delivering Government Procurement Policies by Colin Cram

March 14, 2013

In the 1980s, a TV comedy programme in the UK achieved very high audience ratings. Margaret Thatcher, the then Prime Minister, was an avid fan. It was called ‘Yes, Minister!’ and viewers saw the hapless government minister pitched against the civil servants, led by ‘Sir Humphrey’, who did their best to undermine any ministerial policy […]

UK Parliamentary Review into Government Procurement by Colin Cram

February 27, 2013

The Public Administration Select Committee is a UK Parliamentary body consisting of about 12 members of Parliament. Select committees are where much of the useful Parliamentary work is done. It has decided to examine government procurement. It is doing this through requesting written evidence from anyone who cares to submit any and through asking people […]