Excellence in Public Sector Procurement : How to control costs and add value

This book adds another title to the Excellence in range on Procurement, Warehousing, Freight Transport, Supplier Management and Supply Chain Management. Why then a title covering just public sector procurement? There are many general books covering Procurement but there are not many that solely cover the public sector. Yet this sector spends colossal amounts of taxpayer s money on goods and services; in the UK, the NHS alone is one of the largest organisations in the world. The public sector also has its own peculiarities and differences from the private sector, for example, the EU Procurement Rules that guide and direct how purchasing must be undertaken. At regional and local level there are additional priorities, which are often subject to political oversight. In addition there are opportunities to use Procurement as a tool for wider objectives. Regulation can constrain and limit procurement best practice; such tensions will be explored in the book. However the main thrust of the book, will be the requirement to work working within the existing European rules and guidelines. Whilst the approaches and practices identified in this book should have applicability in many, if not most countries, there are some aspects to be considered when moving out of the English or EU contexts, and we indicate some of these in the Appendices.