The government yesterday published £70 billion of potential government business.  This is for potential future contracts over the next five years in the following sectors:

• Construction
• Aid/international development
• Clinical and Medical life sciences
• Police services and equipment
• Probation and offender services
• Welfare to Work
• Energy and Utilities
• ICT
• Office Solutions
• Print and Print Management
• Property and FM
• Travel.

Read the press release for more details.

An interesting article by Colin Cram of the Guardian explores the possible consequences of the Health & Social Care Act that has just been passed and the impact on public sector providers.

An article reports that SMEs have been able to complain anonymously when they feel that government procurement practices are disadvantaging them.  The Mystery Shopper service was announced in February 2011 and was then extended to include issues relating to unfair practices in the supply chain.  So far 200 complaints have been received.  The government is to investigate all cases.

Sue Arrowsmith, professor of public procurement law and policy at the University of Nottingham has suggested that consolidation of four directives covering EU Procurement could simplify them and make them more flexible for suppliers.  An article outlines her paper which uses the Utilities Directive as a base to work from.

Thornton & Lowe has won a contract to support a North West based medical charity to procure a £10million contract in line with full EU (European Union) procedures.

We are happy to say we have recently won a contract to provide procurement consultancy support for a group of 13 schools. Following the process, we received feedback that our services and proposal really did offer the best value for money, as well as real innovation.

We look forward to supporting these organisations to really drive out efficiencies through the EU procedures.

Thornton & Lowe is presenting at the following events:

Manufacturers Group Meeting on 24 April 2012 from 5.30pm to 7.30pm  - giving hints and tips to the Bolton Manufacturing community; and

Oldham & Rochdale Construction Sector Networking Meeting on 25 April 2012 from 8.30 to 10.00am – outlining our services and tips on how to increase tender success.

Purecone reports on Kent Council energy buyer’s £2m theft of council funds. The senior buyer earning £66,000 a year siphoned off £2m using a simple bank account name switch.

Deltatre has saved the day at the BBC reports  Digital Arts. After a three month delay in procurement the BBC finally awarded Detatre the contract for an intelligent digital player to capture the Olympics. Deltratre confirmed they would provide the player to specification. However, the BBC did not comment on whether the tender value had increased due to the delay.

Printweek reports the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (LOCOG) has awarded a £16m printing contract to an American company. This along with the also reported fact that 91% of merchandise will be awarded to contractors outside of the UK has caused Unite to criticize the Olympic procurement process.