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23 August 2022: Transforming Crown Commercial Service Programme Accounting Officer assessment

Published 29 September 2022

Accounting Officer Memorandum: CCS Change Programme

An accounting officer assessment for the CCS Change Programme was conducted in line with the Cabinet Office commitment to publish Accounting Officer Assessments for Government’s Major Projects. This Accounting Officer assessment considers the four standards of regularity, propriety, value for money and feasibility.

Background and context

Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is the biggest public procurement organisation in the UK helping thousands of public and third sector buyers in the UK with billions of pounds of spending each year through a wide range of commercial agreements. In 2021/22, we helped our customers achieve commercial benefits totalling over £2.8 billion by using our agreements.

The CCS Change Programme is a multi-year change programme to move to a more digitally enabled CCS, that puts customers at the heart of everything we do and can respond quickly and effectively to customers’ changing requirements and priorities.

The Programme is in place to design and deliver scalable digital procurement tools that will make CCS commercial agreements easier to find, easier to use and support the delivery of significant increases in commercial benefits through the increased use of CCS agreements.

Simon Tse, as Chief Executive and Accounting Officer for Crown Commercial Service has made this Accounting Officer Assessment in August 2022.

Regularity

CCS is a Trading Fund and Executive Agency of the Cabinet Office, established through secondary legislation to provide the public sector with access to commercial agreements for the procurement of common goods and services. The Crown Commercial Service Trading Fund was originally established under the Government Trading Funds Act 1973 (“the 1973 Act”) by the Buying Agency Trading Fund Order 1991 (“the 1991 Order”) with effect from 1st April 1991.

As a Trading Fund, CCS generates income from a levy on suppliers for business they are awarded through the use of CCS commercial agreements. The CCS Change Programme is entirely funded from the CCS budget, i.e. income generated through the normal operations of the agency, with no requirement for any additional funds from HM Treasury, and has been approved through the standing governance of the Agency.

The Programme does not require new or amended legislation to progress.

The commercial procurement requirements of the programme have been assessed by CCS’s commercial teams and sourced through CCS’s procurement teams.

Procurement activity in relation to the Programme has utilised CCS commercial agreements run in accordance with The Public Contracts Regulations 2015 (PCR15). Payment controls are in place for all external service delivery providers and provider performance is managed through the contract management process.

Regularity Accounting Officer Standard: met.

Propriety

The Programme is subject to internal CCS governance and assurance controls, including the Non-Executive Board and external governance and assurance through Infrastructure Projects Authority (IPA)/ Government Major Projects Portfolio (GMPP) reporting and a Government Internal Audit Agency (GIAA) audit.

The Programme has a Programme Board which acts as the key decision-making authority and which meets monthly, led by the Senior Responsible Owner (SRO) and attended by key stakeholders from within CCS.

The Programme entered the GMPP as a Tier A programme in April 2019 and was reduced to Tier B in September 2021. The Programme is subject to strong external governance and controls through its quarterly reports into GMPP.

External assurance of the Programme has been provided by an IPA Review in October 2020 when it was a GMPP Tier A programme. Subsequently, as a Tier B GMPP programme, an external GIAA audit was conducted in January 2022. The GIAA Audit in January 2022 resulted in a Moderate assessment. The recommendations for improvements were accepted and the actions discharged.

As a commercial organisation, CCS conducts an annual declaration of interest exercise and requires update declarations when there is any change in circumstances. All employees and/or representatives of CCS are required to declare any ‘interests’ which may give rise to an actual, potential or perceived conflict of interest so these can be managed effectively. Interests are also declared in meetings and there were no conflicts of interest for the programme board.

Propriety Accounting Officer Standard: met.

Value for money

The programme follows The Green Book methodology, including HMT’s 5-case model. This involved developing a longlist of options and conducting an appraisal to draw-up a shortlist of options, before completing a full economic appraisal of the shortlisted options.

Financial rigour and spend control is ensured via CCS’s comprehensive governance and assurance framework; Financial Approvals Board (FAB), Executive Board (ExBo), and the non-executive (NED) Technology & Digital Transformation Committee (TDTC) and CCS Board.

The Programme will assist in delivering better value for money for the Exchequer by making CCS agreements easier to use and increasing the amount the public sector spends through them, enabling CCS to drive greater efficiencies and deliver more commercial benefits. The Programme’s value for money has been assessed through ongoing reviews of the programme scope and business case through to final revised business case approval in January 2022.

The benefits of the programme will be measured and monitored by the CCS Enterprise Portfolio Management Office against the expectations of realisable benefits set out in the final business case, and reported to the CCS Executive Board. The benefits will be to be realised from the deployment of the products developed.

Value for Money Accounting Officer Standard: met.

Feasibility

The CCS Change Programme aligns to the CCS Strategy and Business Plan and the Government Transformation Strategy, by designing and implementing digital procurement tools and services that are scalable and reusable, ensuring that future digitisation and transformation of services can be delivered in an agile and cost-effective way.

The Programme works alongside senior business users to provide the operational context and expertise to deliver and act as the voice of the end user. Their role within the Programme is to provide assessment of the operational viability of the digital tools being developed, and lead on deployment and transition activities for their respective business areas and on behalf of their customers.

CCS has invested in trained commercial and procurement teams, supported by external digital delivery partners with expertise in government procurement processes, who work together to design and implement digital tools to make buying from CCS commercial agreements straightforward and efficient.

The CCS Change Programme was formally closed on 31/03/2022. During the programme closure process, I agreed with the Change Programme Board to allow for additional testing and where necessary remediation of the digitised commercial agreements to provide further assurance they could be operated in full compliance with procurement regulations before being made available to customers. Following testing, digitised commercial agreements using the tools developed during the programme are being launched in autumn 2022.

Day to day oversight of risk, schedule and cost related to this activity has been managed and assured through CCS internal Governance processes.

Feasibility Accounting Officer Standard: met.

Conclusion

I am satisfied that the CCS Change Programme relies on clear legal powers, meets the standards in Managing Public Money and accords with the generally understood principles of public life, representing value for money for the Exchequer as a whole, and is feasible to deliver.

This summary will be published on the government’s website (GOV.UK). Copies will be deposited in the Library of the House of Commons and sent to the Comptroller and Auditor General and Treasury Officer of Accounts.

Simon Tse

Chief Executive Officer

Crown Commercial Service