Leigh: Efficiency call

The government must do more to ensure it gets greater value for money from the £15 billion-a-year spent on procurement.

The Commons public accounts committee said that there was much still be done in improving the way Whitehall buys goods and services.

The Office of Government Commerce has set a target of £3 billion in efficiency savings in government procurement.

Committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "With the OGC's support, departments had achieved £1.6 billion better value from procurement over the three years to March 2003.

"The drive for efficiency must continue so that the taxpayer gets more in return for the £15 billion-a-year spent on central government procurement, and it is quite right that the OGC's next target is much more ambitious.

"I want to see departments make better progress in developing properly professional procurement.

"They must ensure they do not depart from OGC procurement routes without clear justification, and that the agencies and other bodies they sponsor also follow best practice."

The committee recommended that the OGC should use the authority of the Treasury to tackle departments which press ahead with procurement projects in the face of early warnings that things are going wrong.

The report also recommends that departments should appoint a commercial director, with an appropriate professional qualification, with responsibility for all commercial dealings with the private sector.

Currently fewer than one in four procurement staff have a professional qualification in the field.

"The rate of progress to develop a fully professional procurement service has been slow," the report warned.

The committee also told departments that they must halt what it described as "maverick" spending where legitimate goods are bought through unauthorised channels or from unapproved suppliers.

"Procurement expenditure which falls outside authorised buying arrangements may mean that departments are not securing value for money gains that could otherwise be achieved," the report concluded.

Responding to the report, the CBI said its findings were "a step forwards, but a small one".

"It's a shame that the committee didn't take the opportunity to examine some of its own culture and practices and the extent to which its adversarial questioning of civil servants and business often generates more heat than light," noted John Williams, the CBI's director of public services.