Government gets business-savvy with new procurement chief

The Cabinet Office has appointed a new Chief Procurement Officer to help the government work in a more “business-like fashion”.

Bill Crothers has substantial experience working in the private sector for Accenture, and will now focus on ensuring that the government becomes more “commercially savvy” in procuring services, according to the Cabinet Office.

Crothers will now be responsible for managing supplier performance to ensure that the big name firms delivery on contracts.   He will also be in charge of ensuring that SMEs get the access to government contracts that has been promised by the government, as Whitehall attempts to break up the cartel of big firms bagging contracts.

The government has received scathing criticisms for its inability to provide value for money in its IT contracts in the past, and the coalition has made promises to improve the situation.

This has recently involved flexing its muscles to a certain extent by renegotiating contracts with Microsoft, Oracle and SAP to save millions of pounds.

There is a still a long way to go to convince that the days of costly contracts weighted heavily in favour of suppliers are over, despite Cabinet Secretary Francis Maude’s recent claims.