I was determined to wait until after the election before writing my next piece.  That though was over a week ago and only now do we have clarity on the form of the next administration.

My last blog was about government efficiency initiatives. Whilst I suspect Lib Dem influence in the “Con-Dem Pack” (as it is now being referred to) will probably push the emphasis more towards tax raising rather than public service cuts, there is no doubt that the £6bn public sector efficiency savings will still be high on the agenda.

Some recent experiences have led me to conclude that one of the key target areas has got to be procurement.

I’m sure that there will be a barrage of corrections sent to me by civil servants but I believe I read somewhere that there is one procurement officer in the Ministry of Defence for every four members of the British army.  Rather closer to my own experience though, the commissioning of property services continues to amaze me.

There is a government purchasing agency, Buying Solutions, who established framework agreements for a comprehensive range of estates services.  These tried and tested contracts offer probably the lowest fee rates available and can be used by any publicly funded organisation. Still though, central government departments and agencies and probably the majority of local authorities persist with their own arrangements.

In one case recently a major organisation said it would use the Buying Solutions contract but, instead of using the simple straightforward Buying Solutions procurement process, used their own procurement staff and their own e-procurement website which as it happened failed completely resulting in an extended tender deadline and the need to resort to e-mail correspondence.

I just cannot understand why there is a need for duplication such as this.  If there is a centralised system for buying estates services which works (and it does) why are taxpayers having to fund government procurement processes which are duplicated throughout the public sector.

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Richard Haynes is a partner at King Sturge

• Public sector wastes £15bn a year on procurement
• Institute of Directors on Public Procurement Reform
• MoD recruits procurement head
• OGC procurement action plan for government
• Incentive given for procuring services jointly