Crown Commercial Service tell us that Spend Analysis and Recovery Services 2 is a procurement framework for recovery
Public sector organisations keen to support communities through the pandemic have had to make extraordinary and necessary outlay.
The great majority of this spend has been targeted where it is needed most – procuring goods and services to support the fight against COVID, and bringing in expert help to get the public sector ready to face unprecedented challenges.
As the country moves into the next phase, the focus will naturally shift to recovery and ensuring that we’re in the best position to build back better as we assess the public finances.
Where overpayments, duplicate payments, incorrect rates, missed discounts, incorrect VAT or contractual oversights happen, it’s more important than ever that organisations are able to remedy the situation.
The payment recovery industry reckons that just 0.01%-0.05% of all transactions are erroneous. But when billions are being invested for the public good, it starts to add up.
A framework for recovery
Crown Commercial Service (CCS) is the UK’s largest public procurement organisation. We work with 18,000 customers across the public and third sectors to help them get the best deal on their procurements.
Our Spend Analysis and Recovery Services 2 (SARS 2) agreement can stretch public sector budgets by identifying and recovering past and current overpayments going back up to six years.
It can also deliver future savings by correcting (for example) VAT allocation errors and highlighting ways a customer can improve the efficiency of their contracts.
During the pandemic, we’ve taken action to ensure that you can access spend analysis and recovery services in a flexible and efficient way. We’ve included ring-fenced day rate charges to support you in recovering any overspend due to COVID 19. This means we will cap day rates to ten days in total, making sure you are not paying open-ended rates.
Our suppliers already operated on a ‘no win no fee’ basis for our standard reviews, meaning you only pay a fee which is a percentage of money recovered. If there is no recovery, there is no fee payable.
How it works
There are many different areas of spend where analysis can reveal opportunities for recovery, and both mini-competition and direct award are available as procurement options.
Accounts payable and statement reviews look at all spend recorded on ledgers, and customers can also take a more detailed review of specific areas of expenditure such as utilities, telecoms, contingent labour or specialist VAT advice.
Financial consultants will provide a retrospective review of spend, analysing transactions with third-party suppliers and identifying any areas where customers may have been unknowingly overcharged.
They will then present their findings to the customer before contacting suppliers to reclaim that overpayment back from the supplier directly into the customer’s bank account. For all general reviews, this is on a ‘no recovery, no fee’ basis, with suppliers receiving a percentage of the recovered funds.
There is zero financial outlay or risk to customers. The review itself means you’re performing the necessary due diligence, so you know your payments and systems are in order and any monies overpaid have been returned.
Customers can carry out mini-competitions to identify their preferred supplier, or direct award provides a fast and compliant route to market based on their own value for money and quality of service requirements. The value for money assessment is based on a desktop evaluation criteria of 30% price and 70% quality, and CCS will provide customers with supplier cost models and their responses to quality questions. The combined desktop score identifies the best fit delivery partner.
Find out more
CCS’s free whitepaper containing tips and advice on how public sector organisations can recover incorrect payments through SARS 2 is now available to download
Incorrect payments happen, but we’re here to help.
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Crown Commercial Service (CCS)
