Fire engines purchase body slammed

A body launched by the Labour Government to support the purchase of fire engines and other equipment has cost almost twice as much to set up and run as the savings it claims to have delivered, an official report found.

The National Audit Office called for an assessment of whether Firebuy should continue to operate, or whether its work should transfer to another body or a fire and rescue service.

Firebuy's progress was described as slow because it does not have the power to force fire and rescue services use its national procurement contracts, relying instead on persuasion.

Only five of the 14 framework contracts it set up were used by fire and rescue services to buy equipment, with suppliers prevented from offering lower prices through high volume orders, said the report.

The NAO said the Firebuy contract for fire engines allowed for 54 possible combinations of supplier, chassis, water pump and body type, and a possible one million different specifications.

The Department for Communities and Local Government should "quickly assess" whether to continue with a nationally directed central procurement body, said the report.

It added: "The Department expected Firebuy to be self-financing by its third year of operation (2008-09) but it is still heavily reliant on grants from the Department. Firebuy is expensive to run, with overheads between 5% and 10% higher than the industry norm.

"The Department has not shown enough leadership, direction or oversight of Firebuy to ensure it achieved its original objectives, most of which were not monitored (only 29 of 66 targets were monitored) and many were not met."

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: "The Department must quickly make a decision about whether it is sensible to continue with a nationally directed central procurement body. If it concludes that it is, it must change the way Firebuy operates. If not, it should transfer its operations to another professional buying organisation.

"To deliver value for money for the taxpayer, public sector bodies should prevent the procurement of unnecessarily expensive bespoke equipment and collaborate successfully to build higher volume orders which reduce supplier prices."