National Audit Office Commercial and Contracting

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This overview summarises the UK government’s commercial management activity across departments.

The organisations involved: Departments and arm’s-length bodies (ALBs), which are responsible for securing value for money from the goods and services they buy through commercial relationships.

Based on our analysis of the latest Whole of Government Accounts, we estimate that the public sector spent around £254.6 billion through commercial relationships in 2016-17.

The contract should set out clear roles and responsibilities that establish whom to hold to account Current and future initiatives -government commercial and contracting The present -current initiatives In 2014, following the overbilling on the Ministry of Justice’s electronic monitoring contracts, the National Audit Office reported that government had systematically underinvested in managing contracts, and that the problems were deep rooted and cultural.

Both client and contractor need to do sufficient due diligence We see many problems arise during a contract that should have been known at the start.

In structuring and negotiating the contract, we found that DfT did not fully develop what the potential effects on passengers would be, particularly if the risks that DfT identified around industrial action crystalised.