Currently, public service procurement activity is carried out by many contracting authorities throughout the State ranging from small schools to hospitals to central Government Departments. Public procurement in Ireland is complex, with different levels of procurement development, capabilities and systems across the public service. To date, there have been no specific training requirements for those undertaking public tendering, although many staff have received training in procurement through various bodies such as IPA, IIPMM and DIT. Many procurement staff also have academic qualifications in procurement or related fields such as engineering, law and business. As part of the procurement reform programme, the OGP is considering the nature of professional public procurement training and possible accreditation.
The Office of Government Procurement commenced sourcing operations in 2014 and, together with sector sourcing organisations, is taking responsibility for sourcing all goods and services on behalf of the public service. In addition, the OGP has responsibility for procurement policy and procedures, sourcing systems and data analytics.
Staff have been recruited into the OGP from across the Public Service, thereby concentrating and leveraging the public sector's procurement expertise. In addition, the OGP is operating to common policies, processes and procedures. This strengthening of procurement expertise will in turn provide Departments and Agencies with increased certainty and reduced risk by providing them with compliant sourcing solutions.
To ensure a consistent approach to operations and an over-arching cohesive culture in an organisation consisting of people from diverse entities and backgrounds, the OGP has developed a learning and development strategy based upon a set of technical and behavioural competencies as well as a matrix of appropriate training interventions to address any gaps in these competencies.
Initial training has commenced and is aimed at equipping staff with the necessary skills and knowledge to work to a common standard in the following three core areas:
- Core Procurement & Category Management Training;
- Public Sector Procurement;
- Customer Service.
