UK Home Office dishes out contracts to 999 control room vendors after wasting cash on network tech it abandoned Capita's contract to hook up emergency services control rooms under the UK's troubled Emergency Services Network (ESN) is being renewed for £6.5m without competition. The outsourcer has become the latest in a list of control system software suppliers to win the Home Office's favour without having to fight it out against rivals …
Indeed
Once worked for a small company that bid for gov project.
The software met the spec (and was in use by many customers as was a thing sold "off the shelf" and configurable for any particular specific customer requirements (obv not going into details as would make it identifiable)
Reason they were given for not getting contract was company too small and quite too low!
None of the other bidders had a working product either - ours was the only non vapourware product, and we had even done a demo based on existing a sample of gov data they had provided into our system so had proven everything worked.
Also wort h noting company I worked for did not offer any brown envelopes, days out at big sports events, future non exec role in the company etc. i.e. company ensured no possible whiff of inducement, bribe (which, in my jaundiced view, probably did not help)
But also many companies bid for gov and other public sector tenders but due diligence may reveal that the company is at risk of not being viable for the full contract length (+ extensions). If the product is one that might go unsupported or stop working during the contract then there is a risk. Most public sector organisations would not like to be in the position that they cause the failure of a company due to the demands of the contract either.
It might well be due diligence that caused that company to fail in its bid but there are plenty of routes to challenge the decision if it was felt unfair.
It may well be a preference for a different supplier but there isn't any brown envelopes floating around, more likely job offers, campaign contributions etc.
Senior man robbed in Manchester street. July this year. I was witness and he was on the floor. (I looked after him). Diialled 999. Reply on phone "thank you for your call, we are extremely busy at he moment.. though you can email us at....blah blah) 15 minutes later got through to the control room. What the F*** is happening?
How would you expect them to award the ESN contract to another provider other than EE? All the coverage is being done based on EE masts and they are also putting in the Extended Area Coverage. It's not like it could just swap to Vodafone at the end of the (short) contract and they could easily take it over.
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