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Defence Board 'to OK privatised procurement'
22 June 2012The Defence Board is to decide today on whether or not to approve plans to allow private sector firms to run the Ministry of Defence's procurement arm, it has been reported.
Chief of Defence Materiel Bernard Gray has devised a new Materiel Strategy which includes a series of proposals for the future management of Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S).
DE&S has come under fire in recent years following a series of multi-billion pound procurement overspends and delays, notably the Typhoon, Type 45 Destroyer and aircraft carrier programmes.
Gray's new strategy is said to include a recommendation that DE&S, based in Bristol, be reorganised according to the government-owned contractor-operated, or GOCO, model similar to the one already in place at the Atomic Weapons Establishment.
This would see a private sector partner responsible for the day-to-day running of DE&S, including the purchase of military equipment and supplies.
A report in The Times claimed that the Defence Board was likely to approve the recommendation at a meeting today.
A source quoted in the paper said: "Most opinion formers in the MoD, including the Secretary of State, believe that the GOCO model is, in principle, the best option."
Ministerial approval of any decision is expected later this year.
HAVE YOUR SAY
23 June 2012
GOCO, the best option to make a fast buck out of the British tax payer. It'll be QinetiQ the sequel. A handful of senior civil servants and Gray made millionaires, whilst the staff suffer pay cuts and further redundancies. £14Bn a year of our money in their hands, ridiculous. I'd like to see what the EU Commission makes of it. With thousands of service personnel kicked out the MoD this will surely be the icing on the cake.
Reality Check - Oxford
24 June 2012
It will be interesting to see how private companies can place contracts on behalf of the Secretary of State without Treasury-delegated authority to do so.
Of course the US government is likely to withold IPR and FMS (ITAR etc) from then on.
Which other NATO counties have fully privatised procurement arms?
AlMiles - Bristol, UK
25 June 2012
AIMiles..
your point of things being withheld is a good one, however how often does the MOD place orders costing billions that result in no equipment being introduced into service.
Sadly MOD not up to the task for what it does but it seems that the gov will still be in charge of new dept, just not the every day running of it.
As long as the gov keeps tight reins on them and it works why not give it a try for a time with cross party reviews annually.
Something needs doing to address the failure of the MOD, if staff lose their jobs then maybe they should have done a better job in the first place!
TJ - Britain
26 June 2012
TJ - Britain:
Then they are privatising the wrong part. Fro a recent performance review, it is not DE&S that causes delays: "When reviewed the most significant causal factors for slippage were Departmental decisions (30% of slippage), poor supplier performance (14%) and engineering difficulties (23%). Poor supplier performance (+£139M) and engineering difficulties (+307M) were also responsible for the majority of the net cost growth".
The Main Building customer constantly fiddling with the requirement is the main problem.
Is this decision(due on 22 June, the article says) actually published yet?
AlMiles - Bristol, UK
11 July 2012
This has got to be one of David Cameron's worst decisions. Yes there are problems with DE&S, but have the guts to tackle those rather than jump to a private sector entity who will not be able to operate independent of govt interference, international partner cooperation and intelligence etc. and remember that this is kit used by the front line. Eggs on face when that is withdrawn because the issues are being buried.
Anon - UK