Background
The Staffordshire Police force area includes one of the largest shire counties in England, covering more than 1,000 square miles and diverse communities of more than 1,000,000 people – all with their own specific policing needs.
An effectual telecoms estate is central to delivering this lifeline service while optimising public spend.
Therefore, Staffordshire Police requested PCMG’s telecoms expertise through the Government Commercial Agency (GCA) Debt Resolution Services RM6226 Framework to identify any potential overpayments and opportunities to lower costs going forward via a forensic cost audit.
The challenge
To ensure the Staffordshire Police team remained available to meet the needs of the communities they serve, the level of input the audit required from their staff had to remain low.
The PCMG team ensured this by accessing all initially required billing data through the supplier’s online portal before delving deeper into all rental, call and one-off charges to ensure the billing was correct.
Scrutinising past and present invoices line by line unearthed several issues, including redundant phone lines, lines not ceased correctly by the supplier and potential line rental discounts.
The solution
Analysing invoices for errors, incorrect charges and savings opportunities is only one element of PCMG’s forensic audit service; once uncovered, the findings must then be pursued from suppliers.
Once the identified opportunities were presented to the Staffordshire Police staff for permission to proceed, the PCMG team began to liaise with the supplier – providing detailed evidence around the issues the audit had uncovered.
Ultimately the supplier agreed with the evidence and audit methodology and progressed to credit and correction. The Staffordshire Police team was kept informed of the progress throughout with regular calls and updates.
“We are delighted with the results of the forensic cost audit – the amount of money the PCMG team was able to recover far exceeded our expectations. We would highly recommend this service to any organisation looking to carry out their financial due diligence and make good use of public funds.”
Commercial Services, Staffordshire Police
Recovered value:
of the organisation’s annual spend with a single supplier.
