They should just have a "suspend account" option. You file a nil return once, suspend, never come back unless you have to. Seems easy enough.
So next month and all future months when the government has something it might buy from you, and you would like to sell to them, and you suspended your account telling them that they can’t, so they buy it elsewhere, then what?
The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time
101–108 of 108 posts
Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
So next month and all future months when the government has something it might buy from you, and you would like to sell to them, and you suspended your account telling them that they can’t, so they buy it elsewhere, then what?
Obviously you could unsuspend it at any time and report as necessary. That's what "suspended" means, as opposed to "closed" or "terminated". Come on.
a) immediately, so it's always unsuspended, leaving you back in the original position.
b) you hope that after telling the government they cannot buy from you, they contact you to ask you to unsuspend your account so they can buy from you, then you login and unsuspend it, then they buy from you, then you login to report that purchase, and suspend your account again. This doesn't sound like less timewasting.
Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
Obviously you could unsuspend it at any time and report as necessary. That's what "suspended" means, as opposed to "closed" or "terminated". Come on.
"Come on" what? You suspend your account - you tell the government they cannot buy from you - but you still want to sell to them. So at what "any time" are you suggesting people unsuspend it? a) immediately, so it's always unsuspended, leaving you back in the original position. b) you hope that after telling the government they cannot buy from you, they contact you to ask you to unsuspend your account so they can buy…
I think you might want to step away from the keyboard for a bit.
Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Obviously you could unsuspend it at any time and report as necessary. That's what "suspended" means, as opposed to "closed" or "terminated". Come on.
"Come on" what? You suspend your account - you tell the government they cannot buy from you - but you still want to sell to them. So at what "any time" are you suggesting people unsuspend it? a) immediately, so it's always unsuspended, leaving you back in the original position. b) you hope that after telling the government they cannot buy from you, they contact you to ask you to unsuspend your account so they can buy…
Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Come on" what? You suspend your account - you tell the government they cannot buy from you - but you still want to sell to them. So at what "any time" are you suggesting people unsuspend it? a) immediately, so it's always unsuspended, leaving you back in the original position. b) you hope that after telling the government they cannot buy from you, they contact you to ask you to unsuspend your account so they can buy…
You're suspending the reporting of your dealings, which implies you've done no business in the previous period. When you do business, you unsuspend and report. I think you might want to step away from the keyboard for a bit.
Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Come on" what? You suspend your account - you tell the government they cannot buy from you - but you still want to sell to them. So at what "any time" are you suggesting people unsuspend it? a) immediately, so it's always unsuspended, leaving you back in the original position. b) you hope that after telling the government they cannot buy from you, they contact you to ask you to unsuspend your account so they can buy…
You're suspending the reporting of your dealings, which implies you've done no business in the previous period. When you do business, you unsuspend and report. I think you might want to step away from the keyboard for a bit.
Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time
#107I work in UK Government and the problem is that procurement depts are so afraid of awarding tenders to dodgy suppliers they add so many layers of bureaucracy that it prevents local or more innovative contractors. The rules are much more flexible for low value tenders Please realise there are many civil servants and local government officers that realise the system is overly bureaucratic and are encouraging procuremen…
As someone who bids for these contracts, my outsider view of the procurement process is that it seems to spends so much time and effort being fair and impartial, that it actually ends up:
* Giving too much information to suppliers (i.e. who else is bidding and how much the government will pay) - These things are never given in private sector contracts but you are often told with a public sector procurement process.
* Being a checkbox excercise, with scorecard criteria that can tip the balance that don't have anything to do with how well the company actually does the job.
* The procurement process itself can say to companies 'we are hard to deal with, uncooperative and don't really know what we want', which will obviously influence pricing. I've seen tender documents say silly things like you will be disqualified if you can't make an in-person meeting about the tender given 24 hours notice. Tender documents often contain 49 pages of waffle and almost zero specification of what is actually expected to be delivered (while this is common in the private sector too, it's much worse in the public sector in terms of how poorly defined tenders are).
* Often they have classic procurement footguns, like mandating cost down initiatives throughout the contract which everyone on the sales side knows means 'build in extra margin in years 1 & 2 to fake cost down to year 3'
* The process is so 'fair' that it ignores who will actually do the job for the best total value (mix of quality and cost). This is maybe a little subjective, but often you can end up with what appear to be bizarre awards from an outside perspective.
Re: The UK government's Low Value Purchase System is a waste of time
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
We do list pricing to cut down on marketing costs. Many tenders disallow increasing the price of deliverables over list pricing (it’s an automatic disqualification). You can’t throw in extra stuff either as they reserve the right to remove specific line items after awarding the tender. They write the rules to benefit themselves. The only way I can increase prices is if I stop having an advertised price and go to a pu…
My understanding was that the government doesn't want list service, but wants to negotiate something very specific and annoying, like some weird compliance or support requirements. Of course the government can pay list price if they only want list service, but they don't. List service means you ship the product to the customer and then it's the customer's problem after that.