Monthly Archives: November 2012

  BID EVALUATION – TRIALS & TRIBULATIONS There is a large undercurrent of complaints about the bid evaluation practices in the UK Public Sector. We are aware of widespread dissatisfaction with: I.            the actual process II.            the arrangement feedback given to unsuccessful bidders III.            the point blank refusal to have face to face debriefs and […]

West Coast Franchise – Questions for the Minister Almost everyone is familiar with the Minister’s announcement about the West Coast Railway Franchise. It is interesting to see the commentaries emanating from all sources – being wise after the event. Readers of our briefings (see Brian Farrington Ltd news August 29th 2012) will recall that instantly […]

New York IT Procurement – Round 2 Introduction & Health Warning Please refer to our health warning in our earlier briefing paper. In this ‘episode’ we are expanding on another issue that warrants a ‘lessons learned’ review. Poor DoITT Contract Management Contributes to Increased Contract Expenditures The Audit Report comments that “DoITT did not reduce […]

Health warning – IT Procurement This risk briefing paper is based on an audit report issued by the New York City Comptroller. On April 1, 2005, the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications (DOITT) contracted with Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) as systems integrator for the Emergency Communications Transformation Program (ECTP) to transform and consolidate the City’s […]

Due Diligence This is a term more usually associated with financial transactions, such as business acquisitions. It is unthinkable that anyone would purchase a business without conducting due diligence. Due diligence may be defined as: Due diligence serves to confirm all the material facts with regard to a tender for the provision of goods or […]

Key Performance Indicators The risk of not knowing how a supplier is performing is unacceptable. Our risk auditing services regularly provide evidence that no KPI’s exist or have not been subjected to rigorous scrutiny before they have been included in a contract. We dealt with a contract for the provision of security services to a […]

The UK is probably 8 – 12 years behind USA experience with outsourced contracts. It has been evident for some time that in-sourcing was taking place at an increasing pace, particularly with IT contracts. Unsurprisingly, the public sector has had mixed experiences with outsourced contracts for a wide variety of services. The UNISON bargaining web-site […]