The UK authorities should overhaul its method to public sector procurement whether it is critical about backing British innovation, in keeping with Justin Megawarne, managing associate at Megaslice, who has accused Whitehall of hiding behind inflexible frameworks and “arbitrary scoring methods”.
Megawarne’s feedback observe the choice to award Fujitsu a spot on a authorities framework price as much as £984 million, regardless of the corporate’s central function in growing and supporting the Publish Workplace Horizon IT system. The system led to the wrongful prosecution of 736 subpostmasters throughout the UK and has since turn out to be probably the most critical miscarriages of justice in trendy British historical past.
Fujitsu had beforehand written to the federal government committing to not bid for brand spanking new public contracts till the general public inquiry into the Horizon scandal had concluded. Its inclusion on the framework has reignited debate about how the federal government selects suppliers — and whether or not it’s doing sufficient to help real home innovation.
“If an organisation has carried out so badly for its prospects that it has turn out to be a nationwide scandal and warranted its personal TV drama, certainly it’s time the federal government spent its cash elsewhere,” Megawarne stated.
“With a lot public cash wasted on expertise that isn’t match for objective, and on this case fraudulently criminalised folks, the finances for actual innovation continues to shrink. We’re failing to help the following era of founders who’re constructing genuinely revolutionary companies, as a substitute recycling contracts to the identical organisations which have failed us earlier than.”
Megawarne argues that authorities procurement processes are basically flawed, relying too closely on mechanistic analysis instruments that wrestle to establish actual worth.
“Present approaches to adopting new expertise are overcomplicated and painfully gradual,” he stated. “Scoring sheets don’t seize innovation. If the federal government truly engaged with companies as a substitute of holding them at arm’s size, we might save thousands and thousands of kilos presently wasted on the unsuitable options.”
Reasonably than counting on civil servants to evaluate advanced and novel applied sciences, Megawarne believes the federal government ought to enlist impartial business leaders with confirmed innovation credentials.
“Let specialists choose concepts utilizing their expertise and judgement, not a spreadsheet,” he stated. “Sure, some will say that sounds unfair, nevertheless it dramatically will increase the probabilities of discovering a genuinely game-changing answer. You merely want to make sure these specialists don’t have any conflicts of curiosity.”
He added that procurement choices are too typically pushed by worth somewhat than outcomes. “Spending much less on the unsuitable answer isn’t saving cash in any respect. A lot of what’s been invested in up to now has failed to resolve the day-to-day issues authorities departments truly face.”
Megawarne additionally criticised what he sees as the federal government’s default choice for big, established suppliers, no matter previous efficiency.
“The mindset continues to be, ‘nobody ever obtained fired for getting IBM’,” he stated. “It’s a means of avoiding accountability. If one thing goes unsuitable, you possibly can all the time level on the large title.”
Within the case of Fujitsu and the Publish Workplace Horizon system, he stated the failure was neither minor nor remoted. “This wasn’t a easy error. It destroyed lives. The corporate apologised solely when it was pressured to, and repeatedly resisted compensation. But right here we’re once more, awarding extra public contracts.”
In keeping with Megawarne, the identical sample performs out repeatedly throughout authorities IT spending. “Enormous consultancies win main contracts, fail spectacularly, and face no actual penalties. It’s a cycle of failure with zero accountability.”
On the coronary heart of the issue, Megawarne believes, is an institutional aversion to threat.
“True innovation exists within the UK, and far of it sits with founders who’re constructing options that might genuinely remodel public providers,” he stated. “However the authorities is basically risk-averse.”
He warned that founders are being steered down the unsuitable path, optimising for procurement scorecards somewhat than fixing actual issues. “They chase excellent scores on frameworks that measure the unsuitable issues, whereas innovation is sidelined in favour of cost-cutting and box-ticking.”
“If the federal government genuinely desires to unlock British innovation,” Megawarne added, “it must cease prioritising spreadsheets over folks, and begin backing concepts that really work.”
