Comments on: An Acquisition Game Changer

By: Richard Stockley

Richard Stockley — Sat, 22 May 2010 08:11:08 +0000

Many metropolitan councils have been publishing the tender prices of large building projects on the internet for many years now. These lists show the price of the submitted tender and the name of the contractor.

In the case of the Springer it would be interesting to know who the competitors were and what their prices were in comparison.

I don’t know where the figure of £25k was plucked from, probabaly thin air, but that figure alone could create a large bureaucratic cost because of the need to collate and publish a large number of figures. What is needed is the opportunity for open book audits and public accountability on a random sample of larger projects, albeit with an eye on opsec.

By: admin

admin — Fri, 21 May 2010 21:16:49 +0000

Marcase, I know it is not likely to happen and the definition of full disclosure could mean a range of things but the coalition cannot unsay it, every single item in the agreement will be analysed by a media and opposition hungry too see it fail.

Sven, you underestimate the thirst from the media for scandal Look at what happened with MP’s expenses and there is already lot of controversy about one of the new MoD ministers links with defence related lobbyists

I am sceptical it will happen but should be interesting watching the MoD and defence industry squirming and trying to get off the hook

By: Marcase

Marcase — Fri, 21 May 2010 18:38:57 +0000

Not going to happen.

Besides citing defense/security issues, there will be contract negotiating issues. The MoD and industry will not want to give away how they negotiated and bartered a deal.

By: Sven Ortmann

Sven Ortmann — Fri, 21 May 2010 17:35:37 +0000

It will take a while till NGOs developed the capacity (and gained the funds) to analyze such mountains of data.

How many NGOs that are competent in military affairs and potentially interested in playing such watchdogs do you know?

POGO. That’s an American NGO, and I think it takes a country that big to create such a NGO capability.

By: DominicJ

DominicJ — Fri, 21 May 2010 11:41:50 +0000

“We will require full, online disclosure of all central government spending and contracts over £25,000.
Am I the only person that thinks this is going to have a significant impact on defence acquisition?”

If it means what you think it will mean, it will be explosive.

I had expected it to mean all invoices over £25k would be published, but an invoice could just say,
Springer Project – £7,500,000.

However given the number of MP’s who would want to pick a fight over this, its possible we could get lucky and get your idea, or at least something close to it.