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August 2, 2007
CBC don't get the best discounts
A commenter (A Reed) confirms that
"you're probably right that the CBC (The "Central Buying Consortium", the largest buyer of books for English libraries) don't currently get the best terms in library supply. This however is not surprising considering that the CBC was one of the first consortia to benefit from the increased terms that were being bandied around by library suppliers a few years ago when the discounts began to rise. Now we're a few years on, the discounts have continued to rise, with the contracted terms remaining fixed. Expect CBC discounts to go up when the new contract is negotiated soon (As you all know it's not far away now)
I agree with Ken that once again, as with most posts on this blog, the claims of possesions of figures and stats that would be damaging remain useless as they are never released.
We all know what terms are out there, 40%+ in some cases, and no, without major restructuring of procurement, or indeed the loss of a number of library suppliers, or library authorities going direct to pulishers, they won't get higher"
The method is obviously wrong. Why are CBC waiting to renegotiate terms when they clearly know there are better terms available? Why worry about losing suppliers- or going direct to publishers?-- the job of CBC is to get the best value for taxpayers, not to have tea parties. If the market is changing quickly- and it is- you can't have 3 year fixed discounts and you can't have negotiations that go one for 6 months and more. Who is in charge of CBC and to whom do they account.? Get some professional buyers.
Obviously my figures are right (I can't be explicit and breach confidence)- so stop whingeing. The important thing is that this nonsense has come out into the open.
We can't have officers advising councillors that "We belong to CBC-- therefore we get the best terms" -- it's tosh
It shouldn't be me asking these questions and calling to see the actual invoiced discounts - it should be the councillors who are responsible-- or even the Minister and her useless civil servants asleep at their desks in Trafagar Square. Wake Up boys- the public are being ripped off again. - i'm trying to save the odd million pounds
Posted by Tim Coates at August 2, 2007 4:59 PM