The Financial Conduct Authority received a discount on its recent staff laptop spend at Hewlett Packard, but has refused to disclose the actual cost per unit, according to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Last year, an FOIA request from FTAdviser asked how much the regulator had spent on laptops for homeworking.
As reported at the time, the regulator said while it did not provide laptops for the sole purpose of home-working, it told FTAdviser it had been undertaking a complete refresh of the existing laptop estate, and provided an indicative range of the spend, which was £5mn - £10mn.
All FCA staff were expected to have received a new laptop as part of the refresh, and between April 2021 and August 2021, 5,850 laptops were purchased.
A subsequent FOIA, put in during November and December 2021 by financial adviser Alan Lakey of Highclere Financial Services, asked how many staff had benefitted from the laptops, what make they were, what additional ancillary benefits had been purchased, and what discount the FCA obtained for this bulk purchase.
We undertook a tender process to procure new laptops, with a focus on value for money.FCABut while the FCA has now acknowledged the make of the laptops was Hewlett Packard, it has said it cannot provide the exact spend per unit.
It said: "We are unable to provide the exact spend per unit as the price paid is commercially sensitive information, which we are exempt from disclosing under section 43 (Commercial interest) of FOIA.
"We are of the view that its disclosure would prejudice the commercial interests of the firms involved... We consider that disclosure would, or would be likely to, harm the commercial interests of Hewlett Packard."
Lakey said he was not impressed that the cost per unit had not been disclosed.
He said: "[Former Prime Minister] Gordon Brown called it a world-class regulator and, when it comes to spending other people's money, this is a truism."
But a spokesperson for the FCA told FTAdviser that "value for money" was absolutely a "focus" for the regulator.
The spokesperson said: “Our current laptops have reached the end of the warranty period. As they would cost more to maintain in future it's the right time to replace them. We undertook a tender process to procure new laptops, with a focus on value for money.
"We did secure a discount, getting high quality laptops at a reasonable price.”
In its explanatory notes accompanying the latest FOIA, the City watchdog said: "The chosen supplier operates in a highly competitive sector of the economy and there is a risk that details of the contract would be used against it in future sensitive negotiations about similar future contracts and transactions.
"Third parties, armed with this knowledge, would be able to discern the financial circumstances relating to the contract with the chosen supplier to adjust accordingly their own payment demands or negotiating position."
The FCA also said that, more generally, suppliers may be discouraged from putting themselves forward for future work if they do not believe that they will be able to compete with the terms offered by the chosen supplier.
In turn, this would limit the choice of suppliers available to the FCA and its ability to obtain best value.
The regulator added: "Similarly, the commercial interests of the chosen supplier may be harmed through disclosure because other potential customers will gain an understanding of what level of pricing the chosen supplier was prepared to offer the FCA.
"This may be more (or less) than the customer would otherwise have anticipated and be prepared to accept.
It also confirmed it did not provide any ancillary benefits (such as headphones) for staff, nor did it pay for wi-fi outside of office locations.
Lakey added: "In July last year it was revealed that they had ‘lost’ 323 laptops and other electronic devices so let us hope they take better care of these little beauties."
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
