Extracts from an article written by reporter Gill Plimmer and James Blitz, Whitehall Editor at the Financial Times.
“Civil servants too busy managing EU exit to focus on new and better-value tenders.
Hundreds of government contracts with the private sector that were due to expire are to be automatically extended because civil servants are too busy with Brexit to focus on new and better-value tenders. One procurement adviser to the government said more than 250 contracts were either close to expiring or had already expired in 2016-17.” [...]
Gus Tugendhat, founder of Tussell, which provides government contract databases, said the rise in extensions was caused by cuts to departmental budgets and manpower as well as Brexit. “Issuing public tenders promotes competition and transparency but is also a costly and time-consuming exercise for the public sector,” he said. [...]
Read the full article on the Financial Times’ website.
Image: Times of Israel.
