Public Sector PQQ and the Procurement Process

For an in depth discussion on procurement, PQQ and how they fit together we need to understand why PQQ exist at all.
This is the first of two articles explaining the public sector procurement process and attempts to demystify and explain why the process is structured as it is.
The government spends more than £400 billion pounds per annum. It is the single largest purchaser of goods and services in the United Kingdom. So the public sector is the largest customer in the country and what’s more, public sector money is our money. Therefore there are immediately several reasons why a robust process needs to be in place:

1. Governance
Public Sector money belongs to us and so the money must be spent wisely. There must be an easily identifiable audit trail and the decision making process must be justified at every level.

2. Value for Money
Because public sector finances are collected from the population via a variety of taxes and because taxes are unpopular we must ensure that every penny of public sector spend is spent in the best way it possibly can be.

3. Risk
The public sector is risk averse. Therefore all public sector funds are spent on procuring goods and services that are as assured as possible of delivering the required outcomes.

What this means for you as a supplier is that:

1. Public sector procurement has to be auditable and so this is why you must go through a structured and methodical process. Each process is documented and it is this documentation and subsequent evaluation that takes time and requires the PQQ and other stages of the public sector procurement. The benefit this has to you as a supplier, is that the public sector procurement process offers a transparent and equitable route to market and a clearly identifiable and justifiable evaluation criteria for its spend.

2. Contrary to opinion public sector value for money (vfm) is not all about being the cheapest. Whichever public sector body you are attempting to supply will look at whole life cycle costs, things like maintenance, waste, and sustainability and factor a complex mix of attributes into the mix. The public sector unlike the private sector will not automatically select the lowest bidder. With regard to certain services it will be outcomes and quality of service that is measured not costs. The cheapest surgeon may not be the best! The public sector knows this and structures its procurement procedures accordingly. For you as a supplier this means that you do not have to be the cheapest to secure the contract.

3. Public sector risk is an oft talked about area. Yes the public sector is risk averse, rightly so. If you look at the procurement process from the point of a taxpayer instead of a supplier you will quickly realise the importance of risk assessment. An element of the public sector procurement system is merely about identifying and quantifying risk. Enter stage left the PQQ. The PQQ is an efficient, transparent and equitable method of identifying risk

My second blog in this series will lay out the key generic elements of public sector PQQ and attempt to explain why they are structured as they are.


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