A new government-wide directive will mean that all suppliers and contractors to the MoD will now have to sign up to the new Sustainable Procurement (SP) Charter.
Believe it or not, arms manufacturers will in future have to account for the impact their weapon systems will have on the environment and on society. The charter says: “SP is a process whereby organisations meet their needs for goods, services ... and utilities in a way that achieves best value for money on a through life basis with minimal adverse impacts on the environment and society.” Not only is there an inherent lunacy in this "Charter" but it will place further burdens on already creaking procurement processes ............. or, as one business executive neatly put it:
“This is yet another example of civil servants living in a parallel universe. Everyone knows the MoD is broke and by its own admission is constipated with process, much of it pointless and counter-productive, so why has it launched another vacuous initiative that will consume resources?”
The answer: nuLabour political correctness, of course.
It is the result of a study by the Sustainable Procurement Task Force established in May 2005 with the aim of drawing up an action plan to bring about a "step-change in sustainable public procurement" and to make sure that the UK is among the leaders in Sustainable Development in the EU by 2009. In other words, to make procurement in the UK the most cumbersome and expensive in Europe. As with so many of these initiatives, only the UK adopts them, none of our EU "partners" do.
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