The Government Procurement Service (GPS) announcement of measures designed to speed up the payments to recruitment suppliers and especially SMEs through “a dynamic and transparent supply chain, with no barriers to entry” is welcome and in my opinion very much needed. The lifeline of any business is cash flow but SMEs often have a greater financial burden as they can’t diversify their risk as broadly as larger firms. So to hear this announcement from the GPS is extremely positive. At Comensura, a provider of vendor neutral services for over 10 years, we know that SMEs play an extremely important role in providing high quality candidates or filling the gaps in supply often left, or ignored, by the larger or generalist recruitment agencies.
I also welcome the GPS announcement regarding its planned procurement of a neutral vendor for contingent labour. It is encouraging to see this type of innovation and holistic thinking within central government. It will be interesting to see how this procurement exercise develops. For a major scale project of this nature, it is important that a thorough internal governance process is put into place, and an internal mandate created, so we look forward to seeing how the GPS have addressed these practicalities. As an interested bidder, we’re also hoping to see some strict controls over neutrality, to ensure that the model offers fairness and transparency for suppliers.
Jamie Horton, Managing Director, Comensura