Move towards Procurement Shared Services

31 July 2009

The May meeting of the CGCoPE Supervisory Board endorsed the Category C Shared Services paper.  The aim of the shared services solution is to improve the delivery of Category C procurement, provide an option for leading some of the smaller collaborative procurements not yet addressed and accelerate the delivery of Advanced Procurement as defined in John McClelland's Review of Public Procurement in Scotland.

We are now working on establishing a project team to take forward the recommendations.  Discussions have begun with organisations interested in accessing a shared services solution and some who are looking to transfer their procurement teams to CGCoPE.  The paper proposed a flexible approach: not requiring all organisations to participate at the start but allowing those bodies who support such a service to proceed. 

Through the Simplification of Government programme, staff in the former agencies of Science and Advice for Scottish Agriculture (SASA), Scottish Fisheries Protection Agency (SFPA) and Fisheries Research Service (FRS) are transferring to CGCoPE.  We are also looking at 'buddying' arrangements where bigger procurement teams can support smaller central government bodies that have little or no procurement resource or expertise.

Procurement Shared Services will evolve over time. We will provide regular updates through our newsletter and website, as well as reporting progress to our Supervisory Board. 

Barry Graham
Head of CGCoPE
0131 244 3522
barry.graham@scotland.gsi.gov.uk