£40m wasna enough for ink and toner cartridges in public sector, says Scottish government
- Reference: 1594036810
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/07/06/supplier_sees_the_colour_of/
- Source link:
In a move that signifies the apparent impact of Covid-19 on all walks of life, the Scottish government has been forced to extend a £40 million framework deal for computer consumables.
[2]As the original deal , signed in 2016 with Banner Group, was due to come to a close in September this year, the agency in charge of the contract has decided to extend it rather than try to procure again.
“The need for modification has been brought about by circumstances which the contracting authority could not have foreseen relating to emerging priorities in relation to Covid-19 work,” the tender notice said.
As a result, the contract has been extended by 5 months without competition, at a cost of £750,000, or £150k a month, or roughly £5,000 per day.
As well as toner cartridges, the framework includes ink cartridges, CDs, something called digital versatile disks (DVDs), flash memory, and flash memory storage devices.
Who gets through so much toner and ink - and, er, flash drives? The list of Scottish public sector bodies able to buy from the framework is extensive, including Caledonian Maritime Assets, Clackmannanshire Council, and Forestry Commission Scotland which we understand have, er, paper to burn. It might even include the town council of [3]Stoney Bridge , as far as we know, but that would be a niche joke.
The big ink vendors have seen [4]revenue run dry in recent years. A few more printouts of East Renfrewshire Council meeting minutes will surely keep the hard pressed print vendors' coffers flowing. ®
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[1] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:312076-2020:TEXT:EN:HTML&src=0
[2] https://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:136269-2016:TEXT:EN:HTML
[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTsvLjAzozE
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2020/05/28/hp_inc_q2_2020/
[5] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Nice idea in principle to use public sector economies of scale to drive prices down, but has failed spectacularly.
If it's anything like when I worked for the MoD, a couple of months before the end of the year people will get told "you've not used your full budget yet, better get it used before the end of the quarter or it will get cut next year". That was the point when we'd get out the equipment catalogues and buy a couple more storage scopes and maybe a new vacuum chamber and pumps.
Where I used to live, you used to be able to tell the upcoming end of half or full financial year by the state of the roadside as they spent leftover money on flowers & trees.
@Arthur the cat
I picked up some very easy cash 'teaching' a class that was never advertised because it was to clear out their budget money they needed to blow to justify their future demands.
At Arthur the cat, re: vacuum pumps...
=-)P
Leaving that aside though, framework contracts are a joke. Nice idea in principle to use public sector economies of scale to drive prices down, but has failed spectacularly.
When I was in the public sector it was cheaper to buy outside the main framework contracts.
Yep, price gouging has been a major issue (IME) with the projects I've worked on
Y2K
I think a lot of people are using the Covid-19 pandemic as the latest excuse to say "Ah, we didn't see that coming so we can't do X, Y & Z", just like many people did with Y2K.
Flash drives have a very short life...
They get used once and are then left on a train / in a car park so that documents can "leak"...
So cheap?
Well clearly the Scottish Government aren't printing much. £5000 at normal ink prices would buy you about 5 pages of an HP InkJet - that will be used up before midnight 'cleaning nozzles'.
How much for a nut
Reminds me of my father in the navy 40 years ago. He went to the ships stores to get a nut and bolt.. He was given a box of 144 of them. He complained - but was told that's the new way of working. He used the nut and bolt and left the box with the other 143 on the shelf in the engine room ... I expect it is still there.
"It might even include the town council of Stoney Bridge, as far as we know, but that would be a niche joke."
IT'S VID-AY-OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Same niche joke.
Leaving that aside though, framework contracts are a joke. Nice idea in principle to use public sector economies of scale to drive prices down, but has failed spectacularly.