PPP Management

The on-going woes of Serco were widely reported this week with the company returning to the markets for additional funding.  What has been widely reported as a problem for the business is perhaps overly pessimistic; a quote from the press indicates that there is very good support for the company and encouraging signs ahead, "The fundraising, led by brokers Bank of America Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Cazenove, was three times oversubscribed , with a mixture of new and existing investors backing the placing." The mixture of new and existing investors demonstrates widespread support from financial institutions and indicates that a return to better days is not far ahead, putting the darker days at the PAC firmly in the past.

The case identified via the link ( http://www.supplymanagement.com/news/2014/scottish-government-loses-ferry-procurement-challenge  ) relates to a procurement activity undertaken by the Scottish Government and the notification to challenge the award notice by an unsuccessful bidder. Of particular note is the use of e-mail to make the challenge notification and the timeframe provided by the Authority to raise a challenge. Result: The challenge stands and further hearings are to follow.

Headline "G4S and Serco could pay government £4 million over failures in asylum seeker housing contracts" http://www.supplymanagement.com/news/2014/g4s-and-serco-could-pay-government-ps4-million-over-failures-in-asylum-seeker-housing This appears to be another negative story about G4S and Serco.  However read on..... "negotiations are taking place that could see up to £4 million being paid to the Home Office as a rebate for failure to hit KPI targets" Let's congratulate the Home Office for two things: 1. Setting ambitious targets and making the contractors work for them. 2.  Writing contracts that are sufficient rigour that penalty clauses are effective and that contractors are being held to account. Will the PAC applaud the work of the Home Office? Time will tell. It should not be forgotten that the subject of housing for asylum seekers is a very emotive subject and any contractor that takes on this challenge should be encouraged.  There has bee...

We've covered this story for the last couple of months and have always said that there were problems in the contract management of the G4S and Serco Ministry of Justice (MoJ) contracts.  The report makes for sorry reading, page 13 is the Executive Summary ( https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/267693/contract-management-review.pdf  ) There are three crucial questions following on from this report and its publications are: What will the government do to resolve the skills shortfalls? Will Serco and G4S be welcomed back in to the government? Despite some contracts being reviewed further, the government exclusion of G4S and Serco from competing for government contracts at present has the door been left open to compensation claims should no fault be found? The following government report heaps yet more worries on the government, 28 contracts reviewed and any shortcomings are not the contractors.  To quote from the report "th...