UK GOV.:CLAIMS CAN SAVE 10B GPB's ON SUPPLIES / STATIONARY

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Date: Tuesday June 7, 2011 10:48:41 am
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    UK GOV.:CLAIMS CAN SAVE 10B GPB’s ON SUPPLIES AND STATIONARY

    Promise of £10 billion savings from stationery/Government pledges to halt procurement ‘madness’
    Up to £10 billion can be shaved off Government spending by centralising public bodies’ purchases of stationery and office supplies, ministers will claim on Friday.Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office minister, will today set out plans to centralise the procurement of supplies and other items across Whitehall.It comes after the government’s procurement guru, Sir Philip Green, recommended centralised buying in his 2010 review of government spending.Mr Maude said that the new system would put an end to “absurd” disparities in the prices Whitehall departments and agencies pay for everyday items.

    The minister accepted that the previous government made similar promises of major “efficiency savings” without significant results, but insisted that the Coalition has the will to succeed where Labour failed.The Cabinet Office said that improvements in procurement had already saved £1 billion in 2010/11. Another £2 billion of savings will be made this year and next. In 2013/14 and the following year, savings will reach £3 billion, Mr Maude said, meaning that total savings in the current four-year spending round would be around £10 billion.Significantly, the savings from Mr Maude’s efficiency drive have already been “banked” by the Treasury in its public spending plans.That means that if ministers fail to deliver on their savings promises, they will have to cut spending elsewhere, or increase either taxation or borrowing.

    Mr Maude said there was “huge scope” to make savings on public sector procurement.A new centralised procurement system will cut costs by eliminating duplication and unnecessary expense, he said. Public bodies have been paying as little as £350 and as much as £2,000 for the same laptop, he said. Prices paid for identical printer cartridges varied from £85 to £240.

    Under the new system, all central government bodies will be able to order three different sorts of office notebook, instead of the dozens of different colours, sizes and types currently being purchased.Mr Maude said his team had found that across Whitehall, around 15,000 different items of stationery are being bought. Under the new centralised system, that will fall to 600,000.“It is bonkers for different parts of Government to be paying vastly different prices for exactly the same goods,” Mr Maude said. “We are putting a stop to this madness which has been presided over for too long.”

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