Thread by @jb_pritchard

In other #procurement news, @BorisJohnson revealed that he views the £250bn of government procurement as a cash cow to fund his other policy promises through "savings" 💰

Here's why we @reformthinktank think this is awful procurement policy....

news.sky.com/story/the-full…

First, procurement is already strained by factors including poor supplier-purchaser relationships and bad contracting 📜

(see @Ameyplc's issue with Birmingham city council

https://twitter.com/jb_pritchard/status/1145696240027545603

)

Second, with the renationalisation of some services going ahead, procurement spend will be higher as both transition costs and direct spend will increase (something I've written about before with @G4S and #probation)

reform.uk/the-reformer/w…

Thirdly, whilst very useful tools for better procurement, policies like #socialvalue are already adding to the workload of procurement teams. Threatening cuts will only pile on more pressures, risking worse outcomes and poor value-for-money (and even another #carillion!)

If @BorisJohnson wants to #reformprocurement, he should focus on improving the skills of procurement individuals (@ServiceReform ) and increasing the accountability in outsourced services (something @CommonsPAC picked up on in their annual report

https://twitter.com/reformthinktank/status/1144171014051565568

)

(Plus he should also read @reformthinktank's outsourcing report available here: reform.uk/research/pleas…)