Outsourcing giants to discuss contracts reform with Whitehall officials
The country’s biggest outsourcers will hold Whitehall talks with top civil servants to discuss changes to the public sector’s procurement process.
Twenty chief executives – from companies such as BT Group, Capita and G4S – will meet with civil service chief executive John Manzoni tomorrow.
City sources told Sky News the meeting will address “new government priorities” and “wider commercial policy priorities” as the government looks to change the way it assesses and awards government contracts.
Included among the agenda items of the meeting is “tackling inappropriate risk allocation”.
The meeting is a part of plans by chief Number 10 aide Dominic Cummings to cut down on waste in the civil service.
It is understood that neither Cummings nor any government ministers will attend the meeting.
Those in attendance will reportedly include BT group chief executive Philip Jansen, Capita chief executive Jonathan Lewis G4S chief executive Ashley Almanza, Interserve chief financial officer Mark Morris, Mitie chief executive Phil Bentley, Amey chief executive Amanda Fisher and Serco chief executive Rupert Soames.
Some of the companies set to be represented at the meeting earn billions of pounds from government work.
For example, Serco was awarded a £1.9bn contract by the Home Office last year to manage support services for asylum seekers.
Security services company G4S won a £240m government contract in 2011 to provide security at the London Olympics.
Cummings laid out his plans of how he would reform the civil service in a 2014 lecture to the Institute for Public Policy Research.
He discussed the need to hire more people from a science and maths background into the civil service, increase accountability and cut down on numbers of staff in each department.