After Carillion, Government looks into partially changing its procurement practice
“We in government have started to look at lessons in terms of how we go about contracting with companies, [and consider] whether we want to revisit the question of seeking best value for money by getting large contractors in to manage wide ranging, complex projects.
[...]
If a government department were to decide that they wanted to let smaller companies bid for a number of different contacts, that would mean more in-house resource and expertise in the procurement and management”.
I, for one, welcome the (partial) recognition that perhaps more in-house resource for procurement and contract management is not a bad idea overall. But I have not forgotten the multiple instances where Government officials had bragged how "efficient" (ie, cheap) procurement was done in the UK in comparison with other Member States.
Picking up pennies in front of the steamroller as they say.
The problem with Lidington's view is not that larger contracts are bad in themselves (or worse than a multitude of smaller contracts), is that *especially* those monoliths need more resource for procurement and management.
But bearing in mind the approach of delivering Brexit on a shoe string, that is really not going to happen.