WIREDGOV

The Office of Government Commerce (OGC), in conjunction with Intellect and Partnerships UK, has launched a negotiating guide for the OGC"s ICT Services Model Agreement.

The new guide, developed following consultation with industry, aims to address several issues, including cutting negotiating times and providing a deeper understanding of provisions on a number of clauses, including supply chain rights, due diligence, authority termination for convenience, limits of liability and indemnities.

The Negotiating Guide supports a shared desire among Government and industry to shorten procurement timescales and negotiations with the aim of providing even greater value for money from the procurement process.

The guide has been written jointly by the industry and government, and is structured in the form of a dialogue.  For each section, government sets out the objectives of the clauses in question, industry then outlines its issues and concerns that can arise in negotiations, and finally guidance is provided to the government authority on how best to avoid or address these issues.

Commenting on the guidance Partnerships UK"s Bruce Harmsworth said:

"Now that we have the first version published we will update it as required to reflect any relevant drafting changes or any new issues that arise.  The intention, however is to limit the guide to address major negotiating issues only."

Associate Director at Intellect, Sureyya Cansoy commented:

"The same few clauses in the model agreement regularly consume a disproportionate amount of negotiation time, and I think that we (OGC, Partnerships UK and Intellect) have put together a good piece of work that could help address how a number of these clauses are interpreted.  But this is only the beginning.  For government and industry to get the real benefits we now need to make sure that the guide gets used."

Mark Pedlingham, Director of Major Projects at the OGC said:

"The new guidance aims to provide procurers with sufficient additional insight and understanding of the key negotiating issues to lead to improved outcomes, in terms of a fairer, better value-for-money contracts and shorter procurement timescales."

To access the guide please click the following link and register for free: http://www.partnershipsuk.org.uk/ictguidance

About OGC

The OGC is an independent office of HM Treasury, established to help government deliver best value from its spending. The OGC works with central government departments and other public sector organisations to ensure the achievement of six key goals:

• Delivery of value for money from third party spend;
• Delivery of projects to time, quality and cost, realising benefits;
• Getting the best from the government"s £30bn estate;
• Improving the sustainability of the government estate and operations, including reducing carbon emissions by 12.5% by 2010-11, through stronger performance management and guidance;
• Helping achieve delivery of further government policy goals, including innovation, equality, and support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs);
• And driving forward the improvement of central government capability in procurement, project and programme management, and estates management through the development of people skills, processes and tools.

OGC provides policy standards and guidance on best practice in procurement, projects and estate management, and monitors and challenges departments" performance against these standards, grounded in an evidence base of information and assurance. It promotes and fosters collaborative procurement across the public sector to deliver better value for money and better public services; and it provides innovative ways to develop government"s commercial and procurement capability, including leadership of the Government Procurement Service.

About Intellect

Intellect is the UK trade association for the IT, telecoms and electronics industries.  Our members account for over 80% of these markets and include blue-chip multinationals as well as early stage technology companies.
Intellect works with and for members to:

• develop the UK"s capability to support a strong and growing technology sector
• improve their business performance by
• providing insights into markets and supply chains and constructively influencing their development
• engaging with government and regulators to create the most favourable environment for growth and employment
• maintaining the industry"s reputation and championing its strategic importance
• sharing and promoting best practice

For more information visit http://www.intellectuk.org/

About Partnerships UK

Partnerships UK (PUK) is a public private partnership which has a unique public sector mission: to support and accelerate the delivery of infrastructure renewal, high quality public services and the efficient use of public assets through better and stronger partnerships between the public and private sectors.

Media contact:
Michael Dunning, Media Relations Manager, OGC
T: 020 7271 1318
M: 07771 815245
E: michael.dunning@ogc.gsi.gov.uk

Contact details:
OGC Service Desk
Tel: 0845 000 4999
E-mail: ServiceDesk@ogc.gsi.gov.uk