The government is paying up to 80% above market price on many print jobs adding to a total annual print spend of £104m, according to Sir Philip Green’s review of Whitehall spending.
Green’s report into government efficiency, which was published this week, found that the prices paid by government for commodity purchases are often far from competitive.
He identified the lack of a centralised approach to buying goods and services, which has failed to leverage the buying power of the public sector and resulted in departments paying hugely different prices for the same items.
The capability of print buyers varied greatly across government departments while buying processes were often inconsistent, the report said.
Green added: “There is no reason why Government should not be as efficient as any good business. Any large organisation would want to use its credit rating and scale to buy efficiently.
One of the conclusions of this review is “scale”. Every department has not been used to make Government spending efficient.”
Among his recommendations to the government, Green advocated centralised procurement, the production of accurate spend and consumption data, managing down demand and specifiations, and pricing common items at the same level for all central government departments. This can be achieved through the use of technology such as e-Procurement.
Local authorities such as Ealing Enfield and Greenwich Councils have adopted such technology by implementing Claritum, which has streamlined their sourcing, procurement and invoicing processes, leveraged their in house expertise and optimised communications with external suppliers.
The software-as-a-service solution automates much of the process of specifying, costing, ordering and invoicing marketing print, stationery, documents, reprographics and creative services. The application can be deployed to large number of users from customers and budget holders to expert buyers and suppliers. Management have control over spend limits and controls and have real time management information to monitor performance across the supply chain. Claritum integrates with most leading ERP and financial systems such as SAP, Oracle, JD Edwards and Agresso.
