Fewer than a quarter of central government procurement managers who spend 15 billion pounds each year have a professional qualification from the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply. They buy goods and services, ranging from equipment, information technology, research, and consultancy advice to postal services, travel and stationery for central departments, agencies and other public bodies. The National Audit Office is critical of this non-professional approach and also of the fact that heads of procurement had board status in only 13% of the organizations it surveyed.Although central government made a 1.6 billion pounds saving on procurement, against a target of 1 billion pounds, the result was achieved by just nine departments. The NAO believes that more will have to be done if the target of 3 billion pounds savings by 2006 is to be met. The NAO report: ‘Improving Procurement’ sets out areas where improvements need to be made.
Chancellor Gordon Brown in his Budget speech tomorrow is likely to accept the recommendations of Sir Michael Lyons for 20,000 civil servants to move out of London and the South East and for pay rates in the new locations to be aligned with the ‘going rates’ in those areas. Sir Michael has proposed that there should be decentralisation of public sector activities out of London as a means for improving public service efficiency, regional competitiveness, and devolution. The re-location review has also identified 7,000 posts that can be cut. It is thought that this number is the South East component of the 80,000 posts to be cut as a result of the efficiency review by Sir Peter Gershon, Head of the Office for Government Commerce.The Lyons and Gershon reviews are part of an overall strategy for reform announced recently by the Prime Minister when he set out a blue print for a transformed Civil Service capable of serving governments of any colour in the era of globalisation. There will be a move to smaller strategic centers, a focus on professional and technical skills and more emphasis on performance management.
By John WilsonSince its election in 1997, the Labour Government in the UK has emphasised the need to improve the quality of public services. In the case of local government, this emphasis has led to the introduction of Comprehensive Performance Assessment (CPA). This article considers the merits of actual and intended CPA strategy within the wider context of public service performance measurement. The author concludes that the results produced so far have failed to deliver a clear and consistent basis for reporting on the performance of councils. He goes on to conclude that it remains to be seen whether CPA will be a springboard for improving delivery of services or whether it will become a dead-weight burden on local government.
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