Spend Matters welcomes this post from Peter Smith, procurement expert and author.
The UK government has taken a lot of flack over the past year in terms of its Covid pandemic-related procurement. However, in one spend area, the UK appears to have outperformed most countries, including the member states of the European Union. That is in the acquisition of Covid vaccines, perhaps the most important procurement of all in this past year.
Figures from earlier this month showed that some 15% of the UK population had been vaccinated at a time when the figure stood at 3.6% for Spain, 3.1% for Germany and just 2.4% for France. So what did the UK get right, and what can we learn that might be applicable in other procurement situations? It looks like the UK really understood the nature of value and how that related to this specific procurement. Peter Smith explains why this is a vital point for all procurement, but one that is too often forgotten.
