The Scottish Government has been urged to explain why it has spent nearly £300million outsourcing work that its army of civil servants could mostly do themselves.
SNP ministers handed a £2.7million contract to Manchester firm APS Group to provide thousands of 'gimmick' schoolbags to Primary One pupils last week, without putting the contract out to tender.
The Mail on Sunday can reveal the same firm has been awarded a staggering £294million in public contracts from the Scottish Government since 2014, for jobs including supplying office furniture, postcards and displays, and printing documents. Almost a third of the firm's government earnings have come from delivering the Baby Box to more than 40,000 families a year.
That's despite the Scottish Government having its own procurement department, which employs around 1,300 staff and a director on £120,000 a year.
APS Group will be responsible for sourcing the government's schoolbags from a Chinese factory, buying all the items to go inside them from around the UK and abroad, and then 'assembling' and delivering the bags around Scotland.
The Scottish Conservatives have questioned why a private firm has been given these lucrative contracts rather than putting the government's 'army' of civil servants to work on the large-scale projects like the baby boxes and schoolbags.
Almost £100million has been spent on the Baby Box scheme so far via contracts to APS Group
A sample of the schoolbags planned for Primary One pupils starting next August
Scottish Conservative education spokeswoman Meghan Gallacher MSP said: 'The SNP have an army of civil servants who could be doing this work in-house, yet they are typically happy to let taxpayers foot the bill.
'With this company also handling the SNP's flagship Baby Box scheme, John Swinney must explain how these contracts were awarded and prove taxpayers are getting value for money.
'Families and young people deserve real support, not another SNP gimmick at the public's expense.'
APS Group has been handling the government's baby box scheme since its introduction in 2017. It was given £100,000 for the pilot of the scheme in Orkney, followed by £35million to manage the whole thing for five years. It was renewed for a further five years in 2022 for £56million.
The firm receives money from the government and then buys all the items for the boxes from different suppliers before putting them together. It is also responsible for delivering the boxes to parents. It's likely to use the same model for the schoolbags.
It has also been given almost £200million in contracts for printing documents, signs and booklets, including the white paper on independence, since 2014.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman couldn't explain why civil servants were unable to manage the school bag project themselves but said: 'The procurement route we took – with a trusted supplier which worked with us on the Baby Box - provided the most efficient and cost-effective delivery in time for the start of the next school year.
'For maximum value for money, the bags will be assembled in Scotland by the APS Group, though some items will be procured from the rest of the UK and overseas.'
Source link
