Police pay more through Sprint ii

West Midlands Police Authority has cast doubts on Home Office claims about the savings offered by the controversial Sprint ii IT procurement framework and plans to minimise its use, reports The Register . All forces in England and Wales were mandated by government in March to buy commodity hardware and software via Sprint ii – a pan-public sector single supplier agreement involving SCC – following benchmarking tests undertaken by the National Policing Improvement Agency. The creation of a police ICT company next spring already cast doubts over the exclusive use of Sprint ii in police IT purchasing, and findings in the West Midlands Police Authority Annual Procurement Report for the year ended 31 March 2011 may add to the uncertainty. "From our experience of obtaining Sprint ii pricing from SCC, it has been found that, on average, SCC have been 12.87% higher in terms of price than alternative routes," states the report. The authority found that in an ad hoc procurement exercise over a six month period prior to March, based on quotes from SCC and alternative suppliers, it would have paid £20,496 more by going through Sprint ii. "As a result of the above-mentioned benchmarking activity, there are ongoing concerns as to whether utilising this framework agreement will represent a best value approach for the authority," the report says. It added that the contracts and procurement unit recently agreed a new ICT purchasing strategy with the chief information officer. "As a result of moving away from commoditised purchasing to a more service-oriented supply approach, (it) may mitigate the amount we have to purchase via the Sprint ii mandate," the report says. Nottinghamshire Police came to the same conclusion last November, when in a white paper it also claimed that Sprint ii was more expensive than other contracts. But since its introduction, the agreement has been defended by the National Policing Improvement Agency. This article is published by Guardian Professional. For weekly updates of news, debate and best practice on public sector IT, join the Government Computing Network here.