Home Office accused over best practice

The Home Office has come under attack from a contractor today (Friday) over its failure to adopt best practice on a recent prison contract in London.

According to the source, who cannot be named for commercial reasons, the government department seems to be "at odds on what constitutes best practice" when tendering for a £6.5m new medical centre contract at Islington's Pentonville Prison in April this year.

The main concern is that the contract was advertised on the OJEC for five bidders with one in reserve. However it was discovered, several months on and when the pre-qualification process had started, that the work had actually been sent out to eight contractors.

Best Practice guidance for government departments, issued by the Office of Government Commerce, states that no more than five bidders can be used in procurement.

Although the bidders names cannot be disclosed, the list is thought to include many of the usual suspect contractors for prison works. London-based main contractor William Verry has since been awarded the 78-week contract.

"This raises some serious questions over whether the Home Office is playing to the rules. If we knew that the project was going to involve eight contractors we would never have shown an interest," the source said. "We feel deceived and it has cost us £50,000 in pre-qualification costs."

A Home Office spokeswoman admitted that the department had advertised the work for eight bidders, but would not comment on the short notice of announcing the number of bidders.

"In some areas, such as London, we have adopted an eight bidder procedure due to a difficulty in getting interest in the work," she added.