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Procurements of major projects by the government have typically taken 77 weeks, paymaster general Francis Maude said today.
Maude was speaking at cabinet office questions this morning in answer to a question from Stuart Andrew (Con, Pudsey) on increasing the efficiency of procurement.
Maude said departments made extensive use of external consultants, a "costly and wasteful" process that excludes small businesses, social enterprises, and voluntary and charitable organisations.
"That results in procurements that are too often uncompetitive, delayed, expensive and ineffective," he added.
"We are taking steps to streamline the process.
"In the meantime, we are renegotiating contracts with the bigger suppliers to the government on a single-customer basis, thus leveraging the government's buying power.
"That will deliver some £800 million-worth of savings in this financial year alone."
Andrew said the recent report by Sir Philip Green "showed just how little time the previous government afforded to the basic principles of cost-effective commissioning and procurement".
He also took a swipe at the newly-appointed shadow cabinet office minister, Liam Byrne.
"Does the minister feel that that attitude is embodied in the ill-considered note left by the ex-chief secretary to the Treasury as he left his old job?"
Maude said that unlike Byrne, he is examining "the unglamorous parts of government spending to find out just how much money can be saved".
Julian Smith (Con, Skipton and Ripon) complained that small business is "locked out of the procurement process".
"Will he start to give small businesses, particularly those in Yorkshire, a fairer crack of the whip?" he asked.
Maude blamed "over-prescriptive procurements" and said he aspires to 25 per cent of contracts going to small and medium-sized enterprises.
"We are going to expose much more widely the tender documents that are available so that small businesses will find it much easier to take part in these sometimes quite intimidating processes."
Charlie Elphicke (Con, Dover) attacked "the misuse of public funds by quangos and public sector balance sheet organisations in paying lobbyists to brief against the government or elected members in the execution of their mandates".
Maude said he will tighten the existing guidelines.
He added the public find it "quite offensive that a quango should be spending taxpayers' money on hiring external consultants to lobby the government to encourage them to spend more taxpayers' money".
He also defended his plans to "disembowel" the equality and human rights commission, in the words of David Lammy (Lab, Tottenham).
The minister said "many people felt that that body was not spending taxpayers' money well".
He said its functions are important enough for it to survive the quango cull but "significant savings" have to be made..
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