About Us
Procurement In Government
Good procurement is essential to ensuring good public services, from buying goods and services that work as they are supposed to, to achieving savings that can be ploughed back into front-line services. The public sector spends £125 billion annually on procuring a wide range of goods and services, from every day items such as pens and paper, to major construction such as schools and hospitals. All of us, as taxpayers who use and fund public services, have the right to expect government to meet the highest professional standards when it procures on their behalf.
Transforming Government Procurement
Public sector organisations can achieve significant savings through better management of their procurement and commercial activities. Good procurement is not just about getting the price down. It's about balancing whole life cost and fitness for purpose, while meeting European Union rules and treating suppliers fairly.
Most programmes and projects involve some element of procurement. With billions of pounds spent buying products and services, it is clear that getting better value for money for what we buy in the public sector will make a huge contribution to our Efficiency Programme targets and to the successful delivery of major programmes and projects.
Very often, organisations contemplate and undertake complex procurement projects. In the longer term, where collaboration is possible, it will provide better value and simpler procurement solutions. But government organisations need to deliver their existing challenges, and as a GPGS trainee you will be making a contribution to achieving success in this task.
About OGC
The Office of Government Commerce (OGC), an office of HM Treasury, supports the government’s efficiency agenda by encouraging more efficient ways of working and coordinating public sector procurement activities. OGC manages several initiatives to open up government markets to competition, and to encourage private sector organisations to work better with the public sector.
A new Government strategy launched in January 2007, Transforming Government Procurement, highlighted the central importance of procurement in delivering high-quality public services and best value for money. OGC is tasked with delivering this transformation, and with driving up standards and procurement capability across central Government. OGC is doing this through:
- Setting procurement standards and monitoring performance and capability
- Developing and supporting a cadre of skilled procurement professionals across Government – the Government Procurement Service
- Driving value for money through a collaborative approach to markets and procurement
- Playing a stronger role in the successful delivery of major projects
- Improving management and use of the Government estate.
OGC’s executive agency, OGCbuying.solutions, provides easy access to more than 500,000 products and services, through a range of frameworks as well as a number of managed services, including telecommunications, e-mail and web services, energy and eCommerce.
The Government Procurement Service
The Government Procurement Service (GPS) provides a framework to enable procurement professionals across government to develop the capability needed to deliver better public services and greater savings from public procurement. The GPS is establishing a comprehensive package of support to the government procurement profession, and to government organisations seeking to enhance their procurement capability.
During 2007 and 2008 the GPS is establishing:
- Professional standards for government procurement professionals
- Learning and Development initiatives
- A central framework of profession templates, providing a guide to the competencies expected and the career options that can be followed
- Career development support and advice
- Greater coherence in job descriptions and career paths.
As a member of the GPGS you will join the Government Procurement Service and benefit from the support and services it offers to procurement professionals in government.