The 12 guiding principles which govern the administration of public procurement are as follows:-
- Accountability: effective mechanisms must be in place in order to enable Departmental Accounting Officers and their equivalents in other public bodies to discharge their personal responsibility on issues of procurement risk and expenditure.
- Competitive Supply: procurement should be carried out by competition unless there are convincing reasons to the contrary.
- Consistency: suppliers should, all other things being equal, be able to expect the same general procurement policy across the public sector.
- Effectiveness: public bodies should meet the commercial, regulatory and socio-economic goals of government in a balanced manner appropriate to the procurement requirement.
- Efficiency: procurement processes should be carried out as cost effectively as possible.
- Fair-dealing: suppliers should be treated fairly and without unfair discrimination, including protection of commercial confidentiality where required. Public bodies should not impose unnecessary burdens or constraints on suppliers or potential suppliers.
- Integration: in line with the Executive’s policy on joined-up government, procurement policy should pay due regard to the Executive’s other economic and social policies, rather than cut across them.
- Integrity: there should be no corruption or collusion with suppliers or others.
- Informed decision-making: public bodies need to base decisions on accurate information and to monitor requirements to ensure that they are being met.
- Legality: public bodies must conform to European Community and other legal requirements.
- Responsiveness: public bodies should endeavour to meet the aspirations, expectations and needs of the community served by the procurement.
- Transparency: public bodies should ensure that there is openness and clarity on procurement policy and its delivery.
Implications of the Principles
The implications of adopting these principles for the Executive’s policy on public procurement will be as follows:-
- Wider economic, social and environmental strategies and initiatives of the Executive should be more closely integrated into procurement policy.
- In respect of strategic procurements and policy in general, public bodies should ensure that there is appropriate consultation with members of the public who will be directly affected by the outcome of procurement and also with the wider community and other stakeholders in the procurement system.
- In order to optimise efficiency gains, greater emphasis should be placed on integrating the North/South, as well as the UK and European-wide procurement markets, and there should be greater collaboration between Northern Ireland public bodies, but only to the extent that it meets the wider social, economic and environmental goals of procurement policy.
- Better information, management and monitoring systems will need to be established for more informed decision-making and to enable more emphasis to be placed on contract management.
- Public bodies, as purchasers, should, as a matter of enlightened self-interest, use their commercial influence to help improve the competitiveness of their suppliers and ensure that appropriate procurement policies and principles cascade down the supply chain.
- Better trained and managed professional procurement teams are required in order to operate the procurement principles and to exercise judgement in increasingly complex circumstances. This training should be complemented by the implementation of best practice across all public bodies.
- The current Accounting Officer Memorandum and other government guidance should be revised order to reflect the new principles of procurement.
- New institutional structures need to be put in place to co-ordinate the introduction of these procurement policies and principles.