Government Procurement Issues and Spend Matters
The above website has a blog on procurement issues which is informative on the business angle of our struggle against this scourge. Whilst the blog is understandably somewhat conciliatory towards its subscribers' Holy Cash Cow, namely Whitehall itself, nevertheless it is useful in giving us a different perspective on the issues. Three entries on ALS are of interest:
"Oh dear, oh dear. More pressure piled on public sector procurement. The Radio Four File on Four programme last week looked at how government outsourcing contracts have been let. They started with the Ministry of Justice translation contract (see our piece yesterday), which does seem to have showed some commercial naivety in the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). That was both through their “big bang” launch approach, and in their assumption that the Prime Contractor could drive down prices from the independent translators without serious pushback. An analysis of power in the supply chain (cf. Professor Andrew Cox) might have helped." Read on
"If you enjoy blood sports, read the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) minutes here of their review of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) Language Services contract, used mainly to provide translators and interpreters in Courts. This was in follow up to a fairly critical National Audit Office review. It’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for the civil servants involved when you read the transcript, and also I wonder how Vincent Godfrey, the Ministry of Justice Commercial / Procurement director managed to avoid appearing. Ann Beasley, the Director General Finance and Corporate Services, who I assume is his boss, took the rap instead for what the PAC certainly considered to be procurement failings." Read on
"We’ve kept off the problems with the UK government contract for interpreters and translators up to now because it has been pretty well covered by the mainstream media. But we’ve got another angle on it now, so to recap; the Ministry of Justice let a contract last year to Applied Language Solutions (ALS), a relatively small firm, to provide interpreters to the English and Wales Courts Service." Read on
