A supplier to regeneration quango the Homes and Communities Agency has been censured for breaking G-Cloud procurement rules.
The Crown Commercial Service stepped in after another G-Cloud supplier complained that a rival had behaved in a way that seemed to lock the HCA into using their services.
In addition, HCA had been offered a reduced price, which contravenes the terms that the framework’s suppliers sign up to.
In its monthly “mystery shopper” report, the CCS said: “HCA explained that when they had attempted to migrate to another supplier, the number of folder permissions had created unexpected problems with the offboarding.”
After the CCS intervened, the HCA has agreed to ensure that, in future, incumbent suppliers must assist them with the transition process.
In addition, CCS has agreed to communicate the issue to other G-Cloud customers, to prevent similar problems occurring in future.
The supplier has been warned about its behaviour, and reminded that the CCS has the right to audit contracts.
In another case in the report, a supplier contacted the mystery shopper service about difficulties in trying to register for the CCS Esourcing tool and the number of clickthroughs needed to find information.
CCS said it “recognised the difficulties suppliers have experienced and will be taking steps, which will in time, transform the way suppliers interface with and transact through CCS”.
In a third case, a supplier complained about a pre-procurement exercise being conducted by Public Health England (PHE), as a precursor to a procurement using the Digital Outcomes Framework.
It said that a requirement for suppliers to have a turnover of above £7.5m was not in line with current policy guidance which advises against assessing suppliers’ financial condition purely in relation to turnover.
The CCS said that PHE accepted that the turnover requirement didn’t sit comfortably with Procurement Policy Note PPN 02/13 and was happy to remove it for the procurement and to assess supplier finances in a more holistic fashion.
