Major projects will get regular reviews

by Carol Millett



All major Government construction projects will be subject to regular periodic reviews under a new central procurement body called the Office of Government Commerce (OGC), which will be set up next spring.

The creation of the OGC is the main recommendation of a major review of central Government procurement led by Peter Gershon, MD of GEC Marconi.

The review, published last week, identifies the need for a central body to ensure a more competitive, efficient and coordinated approach to procurement.

The OGC will include the Treasury Procurement Group, a dedicated private finance initiative team for those departments that choose not to use Partnerships UK - the name for the soon-to-be privatised PFI taskforce. Its board will be chaired by Alan Milburn, chief secretary of the Treasury, and will include representatives from Government departments and the private sector.

One of the first tasks of the OGC will be to set up a standard framework for managing "large, complex or novel projects." This will involve all major Government projects being subject to periodic reviews by independent assessors, with projects only moving forward to the next phase if all key targets are met.

The Major Contractors Group said this week that it supported the plans but it voiced concerns over the introduction of periodic reviews, called gateways. MCG chief executive Jennie Price said: "The use of gateways on projects assessed by independent reviewers seems sensible so long as bottlenecks are not created when a number of major projects merge at a number of key review stages. What we don't want is a bureaucratic system that causes delays."

But a Treasury official said the use of approval gateways on Government projects was nothing new. He said: "It has been advocated in Government guidance since 1997 and some departments are using it already. The OGC will simply aim to make that a standard approach."

He added that contractors had little to fear from the new regime as long as they were already embracing the Latham and Egan principles. He said: "Achieving Excellence has already set up a robust framework for Government construction procurement. The creation of the OGC means we will continue going in that direction in a stronger, more effective vehicle. Contractors will have a more co-ordinated and strengthened organisation at the centre to deal with but will still be dealing directly with individual departments."