Overview
Procurement Scotland will enable the delivery of an effective and efficient procurement service which:
- is fully complient with Scottish Government Procurement Policy,
- promotes common and emerging best practice processes
- facilities the development and implementation of Category A commodity strategies and collaborative contracts.
The integration of existing processes - such as Scottish Public Procurement Toolkit and tender documentation - with e-Procurement tools will promote best practice and resource optimisation. The introduction of robust strategy appraisal and quality assurance processes will demonstrate a commitment to compliance, collaboration and the provision of a credible procurement consultancy service.
The Sourcing Toolkit
Procurement Scotland's strength is in Strategic Procurement. It covers the whole procurement cycle from identification of need to the contract management and review process. It is therefore wider than traditional purchasing, which covers only the tendering and contracting parts of the process. Much more emphasis is placed on the work that needs to be done engaging with key stakeholders and understanding the market before the tendering process begins, and in ensuring that the contract continues to meet the users requirements after award.
Procurement Scotland uses the Scottish Public Procurement Toolkit to produce a comprehensive strategic sourcing strategy for every national contract. The toolkit has four main objectives:
- To provide a step-by-step guide to profiling a category, developing and implementing a commodity strategy
- To provide a set of templates that National Category Forums (NCFs) can use to collate and analyse the data required ensuring that the most appropriate strategy for the commodity is defined
- To standardise the strategic procurement process across organisations in order to facilitate collaboration and associated benefits
- To advise on the the legal and policy obligations involved at each stage of the procurement process.
Best Practice Indicators
A working group with representatives from across the public sector - including Audit Scotland, Efficient Government and the Centres of Procurement Expertise (CoEs) - was established to define and agree a common, core set of cross-sector national procurement Best Practice Indicators (BPIs).
This is a significant step forward in the procurement reform programme and will encourage procurement teams within public sector organisations to focus on the priority areas of efficiency; collaboration; compliance; skills; and e-Procurement, with a view to delivering improved value for money and supporting more efficient, effective and coordinated service delivery. A web based reporting tool has been developed that will allow individual organisations to monitor their own progress in these areas over time, against their peers, and against national trends. At a national level, key trends will be reported to the public procurement governance groups to help inform the implementation of the public procurement reform programme.
The Best Practice Indicators for Public Procurement in Scotland are published on the Scottish Government Website: www.scotland.gov.uk/BPIprocurementsummary
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