Awards

The Society of Procurement Officers in Local Government is now inviting submissions for its SOPO Awards for Outstanding Achievement in Procurement 2010 under four categories:

1. County Council
2. Single Tier (Unitary) Authority
3. Non-Unitary District/Borough Council
4. Wider Public Sector (eg Police, Fire, Consortia, etc)

The Awards, first introduced in 2002, recognise the variety of approaches to procurement made by local authorities and provide smaller authorities with a fairer chance of winning. These are the only national awards that are specific to local government procurement.

Submissions can be made by an individual or team on behalf of their authority or consortium, and for any area of procurement work that they feel is worthy of consideration and recognition. Entries are neither confined to large or complex procurement nor restricted to members of SOPO, so there is no reason not to enter your work.

Trophies will be presented to all shortlisted entries as well as outright winners at the SOPO Gala Dinner, which is to be held during the Annual Conference.

Submitting an entry for the SOPO Awards can stimulate your staff's interest and help to generate team spirit, quite apart from raising the profile of procurement within your authority.

The criteria for judging the submissions will be:

1. Did the work enhance the profile of procurement?
2. Were the aims and objectives clear/achieved?
3. Were cost savings achieved (process costs/total life costs)?
4. Did the work demonstrate innovation?
5. Did the work involve teamwork (staff/suppliers/end customer)?
6. Were there any other indirect benefits?
7. Was the submission well presented?

Make sure that this year you give your authority the opportunity to promote its procurement excellence by submitting a nomination.

The closing date for submissions is now closed. Thank you to those who submitted an interest.

For further details of the SOPO Awards 2010, please contact:
Ken May, Director of ESPO and Secretary of SOPO, at ken.may@espo.org