8 February 2012
Central Government's procurement of FM has been hampered by an inability to benchmark data and an
inconsistent approach to contract management.
Deborah Rowland, head of facilities management at the Government Property Unit (GPU), expressed amazement yesterday at how cost and contract data associated with central government FM contracts had proven neither transparent nor easily obtainable.
Speaking at the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors’ strategic FM conference, Rowland said it was now a necessity for central Government to move towards the standardisation of FM contracts.
At the natural expiry of existing FM arrangements, central government departments will begin using a new contracting vehicle for FM procurement that will incorporate a centralised data, management information and contract management layer. A set of generic key performance indicators is currently under development.
Responding to questions from the floor, Rowland conceded that government FM procurement had been “all over the place” as a result of different departments each procuring facilities services independently of each other. “We didn’t have the wider vision,” she said.
The new central government contracting vehicle will be made available to local government, too, with primary care trusts already indicating that they would consider using the new contracting template.
In a poll of attendees taken during the conference, 44 per cent of those present said that they expected savings attributable to the standardisation of FM services across the central government estate to be between 11 and 20 per cent. 29 per cent of those polled expected savings to be even greater.
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