By Vivienne Russell | 3 May 2012
Former Cabinet minister Lord Adonis has criticised Whitehall’s ‘contradictory’ approach to public sector procurement.
He said that since the 2008 economic downturn, there had been a conflict between centralising purchasing and devolving it. Speaking at a procurement forum on May 1, he said: ‘Centralised versus devolved procurement has meant Whitehall is deeply schizophrenic when it comes to procurement. With the need in some departments to cut budgets by up to 25% since 2008, there are two contradictory pressures at work.’
He added that procurement was ‘on the radar of all of us like never before’ and had shot up the political agenda. For example, he said, when he was a minister procurement meetings would have been chaired by a civil servant. ‘I can tell you that if were one today, then it would be me.’
Adonis served as a schools minister and subsequently transport secretary in the last Labour government.
He was addressing a strategic thinking forum organised by the Office Depot company.
