MPs have called on further education colleges to improve the way they buy goods and services.

A report by the Commons public accounts committee has praised the work of senior education officials but warned that individual colleges are modernising processes too slowly.

As the report was published on Thursday, committee chairman Edward Leigh said: "This is a serious point because money saved on procurement – the target for the whole sector is an annual £75m but that might easily be improved upon – could be redirected towards teaching and other front-line services.

"Both the [education] department and the Learning and Skills Council have done some good work in providing advice to colleges. Many colleges now use procurement cards to reduce transaction costs. And the culture of complacency and reluctance to share good practice and financial information is being broken down."

But the committee said that further savings to the annual spending bill of £1.6bn  could be made if there was better information sharing and improved systems to allow those managing procurement to analyse data effectively.

"Most colleges don't even know the amount of business they do with particular suppliers," Leigh said. "They need to catch up with modern procurement practice."