National Outsourcing Association Chairman Martyn Hart has commented on the Unison claim after General secretary Dave Prentis has said that taxpayers’ money had been ‘wasted’ during the outsourcing of public services.

Martyn Hart said: “Unison members are guilty of 22.8% of public sector procurement fraud, costing the UK taxpayer 547m a year. That’s nearly half a billion of your hard earned pounds down the drain, and it’s all Unison members fault.

These figures were calculated out using the same ridiculous, unscientific, logic that Unison has employed to suggest that outsourcing is responsible for 55% of procurement fraud. It remains unclear where the data in the Annual Fraud Indicator has come from, or how this estimate of a £2.4 billion ‘fraud bill’ was deduced.

“More sensible figures are mentioned in the government report Eliminating Public Sector Fraud, stating that £0.5 million has been identified for recovery. Overpayments and underpayments are common in any ongoing contractual relationship, and these are resolved in audit, and balances paid in due course. Given the size of these contracts, half a million is a pittance. A section of this new report mentions that the Home Office already has such arrangements in place concerning overpayments made to their suppliers last year.

“With regard to the allegations of price fixing, as the nature of government procurement is competitive tender, and tenders are put out to the whole of Europe, that means every company in Europe would have to be in on it. The whole of the European service sector colluding against the UK government. Now there’s a conspiracy theory.

“The National Outsourcing Association welcomes the call for civil servants to end the ‘pay first, check later culture that exists within the public sector. Strong governance is a key feature of successful outsourcing contracts. If public sector leaders need guidance on how to optimise contracts and manage ongoing relationships, we are here to help.

“The first step in the NOA's lifecycle model says you should consult your own staff on how you can achieve your objectives. Unison would be better off coming up with ideas on cost savings by asking its members, rather than relying on spurious statistics to discredit ‘the enemy.’