ProCure21 may get extension

The Department of Health’s ProCure21 framework may be extended for up to another five years. ProCure21 chief Rob Smith will go to health secretary Patricia Hewitt early next year with proposals for the programme to be extended. He will base his plea on evidence from 66 benchmarked projects that ProCure 21 delivers greater efficiencies than traditional contracting.

ProCure 21 Principal Supply Chain Partners (PSCPs) want a five-year extension. Health department lawyers are currently studying EU procurement law to establish how far the framework can be extended.

David Walker of Medicinq said: “The benchmarking data is good news on two fronts. It can be used to argue for an extension and to convince Trusts that ProCure 21 works.”

Meanwhile, ProCure21 has been given the green light to pilot a form of project-wide insurance. The move is part of a wider initiative by the Office of Government Commerce to test drive Single Point Project (Financial Loss) Insurance (SPPI) on around ten public sector schemes.

n Find out more about changes in government procurement policies – and about the SPPI scheme – at the Contract Journal Public Procurement conference in London on Thursday 19 October. For more details, contact Vicky Weyman on 020 8652 4761, or e-mail vicky.weyman@rbi.co.uk.

[Contract Journal, 4 October 2006, p 1]