CCGs Open Up NHS Contracts To Offshore Companies

The NHS is always in the news given its financial situation being on the brink of collapse. One of the other issues that are not widely covered by the media is the contracts put out to tender, which are scrutinised by some as a backdoor to privatisation.

Whether public or private, there’s always going to be a need to put contracts out to tender. It opens up competition and when that’s there, there’s competitive pricing and certainly no comfort blanket once a contract is awarded. If it’s awarded and breached, - or in the case of Leicester NHS trust, which saw a £300M contract terminated early due to being outdated and inappropriate - contracts can be ended early and other options considered. 

What is baffling to read is the chaotic way in which the procurement process of the NHS contracts is being handled. A few years back, Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) announced clauses to NHS contracts put out to tender disallowing the award of contracts to private companies based offshore. Its purpose was to ensure that all contracts awarded by the public body to the private sector would have tax coming back into the economy to further invest into the NHS.

Now though, CCGs are looking to withdraw that clause and open up contracts to include companies based offshore, such as in the Netherlands and the British Virgin Islands, which are known to be tax havens for corporations.

The move comes from the possibility of the NHS being legally challenged over discrimination, as it is argued that tax avoidance is not illegal. Tax evasion is but not avoidance.

Virgin Care is one private corporation reported to have been awarded £1BN in NHS contracts, but doesn’t pay tax on those because they claim to be operating at a loss, and not because they are based in the British Virgin Islands.

This latest announcement from CCGs about the legal issues surrounding how contracts are awarded puts emphasis on the tax issues and not so much legal as it would certainly cost a lot in legal expenses to defend the stance of discriminating based on where a corporate head office is located. 

What can other businesses take from the debate?

The argument to be had is not so much about legalities but more about the ethical issues and something every procurement process should perhaps include. How ethical are other companies an organisation partners with?

That’s not limited to the public sector but for every company around the nation. It’s the only way to affect change. Change how you do business, with who you do business with and why.

·         Does your copier supplier have a toner recycling program?

·         Does your stationery provider use recycled material?

·         Are your company vehicles of the lowest CO2 emissions?

There’s a lot to be said about business partners and the contracts put out to tender. Get the partners wrong and company policies, mission statements and ethical standards could all be compromised.

Perhaps a way to move forward with change in mind is to include ethics expected when making the business case for whatever service or product is needed within the organisation.

Set clear guidelines on who your ideal business partner will be to be awarded contracts. Of course, there’s always going to be legalities surrounding such contracts, especially in the public sector, and since that’s where most procurement guidelines are set from, it’s going to be interesting to see how the tax situation with outsourced NHS services pan out in the long-term. It’s bound to have an impact on industry guidelines further down the line.

Image courtesy of gponline.com. 

The Evolution Of Technology

Where money flows, it goes or grows. Technology helps businesses make sure it’s the latter.

It doesn’t need understood to be used. In today’s age, our newly educated and graduated - who are the developers of the world - put their knowledge of technology into the development to better what already exists. They enable the wiser business chiefs with the life experience to know nothing more than how to work the new creations.

A path from hardware to software to into the cloud

The MFP (Multifunctional Printer)

It’s been in use for years and will continue to be for many more to come. The modern printer is a computer. They have hard drives, memory, wireless capabilities and they’re also connectable.

MFPs, just like the computer can have software added to them to give them more power. They scale to become whatever a business requires.

If it gets complex, costly, or too time consuming, there’s always managed print services (MPS) available, which could be a cost efficient solution. Tread carefully with the contracts though.

The MFP is the hardware. That’s enhanced with software making the following possible:

·         Document management (Scalable to Enterprise Level)

·         Back office transaction processing

·         Workflow automation

·         Accounts outsourcing

·         Collaboration

Is it possible for an office copier to be more efficient than the desktop PC?

Perhaps…

Throw wireless compatibility into the mix and things get more interesting.

Now a photo can be taken of receipts and with a smooth swipe of a screen, it’s sent into the cloud and the contents captured through OCR (Optical Character Recognition).

Receipt bank and Shoeboxed are two service examples

This is SaaS (Software as a Service) at its finest. Every business knows the importance of tracking expenses. Expense tracking services get it and give you the tools to capture receipts digitally or the ability to directly upload them. Once uploaded, OCR technology captures the data, eliminating data entry.

That can then be linked to…

Cloud accounting software

Accounts – love them, loathe them, we all have to get along with them. This software makes that part much easier. Finance departments can take care of all the accounting practices, while your sales force can create draft invoices for approval while there in the field. Speed up the invoicing process and in turn speed up incoming revenues.

Manual invoice processing can be time consuming, not to mention the fact that it takes longer to collect the payments without it being done electronically.

·         Payroll

·         Invoices

·         VAT

·         And tax

All of the above can be completed in cloud applications.

As part of the HMRC Digital Strategy, cloud accounting will be the only way forward… and it’s for the best.

Cloud connects software together and lets businesses tailor solutions to their every need.

Forecasting, reporting, budgeting, and when the time comes – managing treasury functions.

Apple Inc marketed the perfect slogan back in 2010 with “There’s an app for that”. They were right to Trademark it, because all forms of computing hardware is now enhanced with software and those come in the form of app marketplaces. 

Copiers, phones, tablets, and even watches are being powered by software applications. When harnessed to the fullest in business, the right hardware paired with the right software can make the world of difference to the bottom line of any business.