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Excellence in Public procurement
Source: BiP,
9 June 2008
Minister for the Third Sector Phil Hope has reiterated the
vital importance of collaborative working between government
and the third sector.
Speaking at National Public Procurement Practitioners Day
(N3PD) 2008 and the Government Opportunities (GO)
Excellence in Public Procurement Awards in London on 5 June,
Mr Hope said: "Commissioning and procurement
practices are an absolutely essential part of working well
with the third sector. Good commissioning is essential for
the third sector, and all the finalists in the GO Improved
Delivery Through Greater Third Sector Involvement category
clearly demonstrate that they have turned commissioning principles
into reality in their procurement with the third sector.”
Mr Hope was addressing hundreds of delegates who had met
to honour the success and achievements of those working in
the public procurement sector. Also speaking at the event
was John Cridland, Deputy Director-General
of the Confederation of British Industry.
Mr Cridland thanked local government procurement professionals
for their work, stating that “business enormously values
the work you do. There would be no public services at all
if it wasn’t for you, and we recognise the role you
have – and the many successes you have had – in
delivering high-quality, value-for-money services to the
public.”
Mr Cridland went on to say that, while there have been some
successes through reviews such as Gershon and the Efficiency
review, he stated that it was vital that savings do not come
at the expense of quality. He added “We
do not want to see suppliers squeezed, which simply has the
effect of driving firms out of the market, reducing competition
and choice. Nor do we want to see a return to the bad old
days of compulsory competitive tendering, when price, and
not value, was all that mattered.”
The annual GO Excellence in Public Procurement
Awards were unveiled at N3PD. Outstanding achievements were
recognised across eight categories reflecting public, private
and third sector initiative and innovation, while the prestigious GO Lifetime
Achievement Award was received by Nick Bowd, Director of
the Scottish Procurement Directorate.
Organised by BiP Solutions Ltd, one of Europe’s leading
providers of procurement information services and the publisher
of GO magazine, N3PD and the GO Awards
bring together procurement professionals from across the
UK. This was the fifth year that the event has been staged.
Grahame Steed, Managing Editor of GO magazine,
said he was delighted by the response to the event: “In
the rush to achieve increasingly difficult goals, it can be
easy to overlook the good news stories. The GO Awards
have demonstrated that there are plenty of these, and also
that public procurement – as a profession and a public service – has
much to be proud of.
Congratulations go to all the GO Award
winners and those who were highly commended - the future of
public procurement is in safe hands".
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