IPA demands Govt pitch rethink

The IPA has blasted the Government Procurement Service – which replaced the COI last year – branding it too “complex and bureaucratic” and calling on Cabinet Office chief Frances Maude to rethink the process.
The move follows a unanimous vote of no confidence in the system, passed by the IPA Council last week, despite ongoing talks between Government officials and IPA chiefs.
The agency trade body has now written to Maude calling for a panel of its senior practitioners to work with the GPS to create procedures that avoid the pitfalls of earlier frameworks.
The vote follows 13 months of dialogue with the GPS over Framework One (Creative Services) and Framework Two (Strategy and Planning) – and after significant problems with the e-auction process required for Framework Two.
“Even allowing for the Public Contracts Regulations, we have witnessed a rigid adherence by GPS to an unnecessarily complex and bureaucratic process over the last 13 months. The IPA Council therefore has no choice but to go public with its vote of no confidence in the hope that it may make a difference to how the Government Procurement Service organises its buying processes in the future,” says IPA Director-General Paul Bainsfair.
Matters were brought to a head by the recent e-auction process applied to Framework Two which was plagued by problems as a result of which agencies had to keep teams of senior executives on stand-by for several days.
The IPA has consistently opposed these processes during which agencies engage in an online “reverse e-auction”, each cutting its price until no-one is prepared to go lower.
Bainsfair added: “Given agency cost structures, grinding rates down inevitably carries through to the time and quality of talent agencies can devote to the piece of business in question – which in turn has to be reflected in the work they are able to produce.
“Clients have a right to expect value for money, but to treat thought and creativity in the same way as buying nuts and bolts is to threaten the creative spark that can lift a workmanlike campaign into a highly effective one.
“However, in the case of the GPS e-auction, there was an additional twist in that agencies were competing only for a place on the approved roster (vs committing to do a particular job) at a given price.
“This could potentially mean that the e-auction process could result in a final selection of agencies whose prices are so low that it becomes unattractive for them to bid for any work from Government departments that is either not very large or that will not add to their agency profile.”