11 March 2005
Whitehall efforts to sharpen universities' purchasing practices are not needed, higher education bodies are claiming.
As part of the efficiency programme laid out by Sir Peter Gershon, education bodies must find procurement savings worth £1.5bn a year by 2007/08. They will come under the scrutiny of the new Centre for Procurement Performance, which begins work next month.
But the sector says that it has made significant strides since the National Audit Office highlighted failures in 1993, particularly through Proc-HE, the body responsible for developing and implementing a procurement strategy across UK universities.
Tim Cobbett, funding policy adviser at Universities UK, told Public Finance: 'Higher education started doing a lot of the Gershon agenda, pre-Gershon.' He added that universities would resist efforts to over-centralise procurement.
'Universities have a long and worthwhile tradition of commissioning good public architecture,' he said. 'Good procurement is not just about saving money but about creating sustainability.'
The CPP said it intends to focus on schools and colleges, where procurement is weaker. Paul Neill, its interim director, has acknowledged that universities are 'already on the case'. 'There's a fair bit of good practice in HE,' he told PF.
Cobbett's colleague Tony Bruce, head of policy at Universities UK, said he had been reassured that there was no intention to duplicate existing work.
PFmar2005
