The Department for Transport (DfT) has published a tender notice for a private operator to take over its shared service centre in Swansea.
The centre, which is currently run by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, provides back office services such as personnel, HR, IT and document management. It is available for use by the whole department and its agencies, but the tender is for a framework agreement that would transfer it to a private company and make it open for use around Whitehall.
A spokeswoman for the DfT told GGC: "Across government we are working hard to simplify and standardise back office services for central government – as well as reducing the costs of civil service administration.
"As part of this and to ensure that there is a long term future for it as a business in Swansea, the Shared Services Centre needs greater scale. It currently has 15,000 users but could easily cater for three times that number.
"A fully utilised centre would help reduce costs to the department as well as bringing greater job opportunities to Swansea."
According to the notice in the Official Journal of the European Union, it would be a 10 year contract - although the department would have the option of cancelling after four - with a value of between £150m and £750m. It says the aim is to provide shared services for central government and that this will require a significant capital investment.
The DfT aims to run a competition involving at least three potential suppliers, and to have a contract in place by the first half of next year.
The spokeswoman said the department is acting on behalf of central government and working closely with the Cabinet Office on the procurement. She added that a prior information notice has identifited Communities and Local Government as a potential future purchaser of some of the services on offer.
Any other organisations using the centre would deal directly with the successful contractor.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Mark Say
Quelle/Source: The Guardian, 25.07.2011
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