Published
As many of you will already be aware, Crown Commercial Services operate a Mystery Shopper Service who investigate complaints from suppliers regarding tenders they did not understand or instances of what they believe to be poor procurement practice across the public sector.
The Mystery Shopper Service publish the results of their investigations on a quarterly basis and typically these involve large procurements conducted by local authorities or NHS Trusts. However this month, the results include a College that was reported to the scheme by a supplier and therefore, subject to an investigation. The outcome of the investigation was wholly positive in favour of the College, however it does demonstrate that suppliers within the FE sector are making use of the service and all members should be aware that their procurement processes are also open to such scrutiny.
More information on the Mystery Shopper Service can be found on FELP and the results of the Mystery Shopper investigations are published at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mystery-shopper-results-2017.