A story in Supply Management offers highlights from a highly critical report released by the Public Administration Select Committee that called for faster procurement and a better coordination of procurement staff:
The report says it is “intolerable” that public procurement takes 50 per cent longer in the UK than it does in France or Germany and “the Cabinet Office does not seem to know why this is the case”. The PASC says knowledge of the skills of government procurement professionals remains unclear. “Even though there are only 61 civil servants in procurement leadership roles within central government, there is little known about them, their skills and experience, or lack of them, across Whitehall,” the report said. “There is no departmental breakdown and the fact that the Cabinet Office does not know the experience of 17 of the 61 senior procurement cadre indicates a serious lack of coordination of this vital resource.”
