Groups release latest batch of public procurement practices
The Herndon, Va.-based NIGP: The Institute for Public Procurement and the Stamford, Lincolnshire, England-based Chartered Institute of Purchasing & Supply (CIPS) have jointly announced the release of four additional global Public Procurement Practices.
The four just-released practices provide direction in Lease-Purchase Decisions, Specifications, Spend Analysis, and Sustainable Procurement Practices. The latest document release is part of a larger shared initiative to define and formalize global professional standards for government procurement officials.
The release of the practices brings to 14 the body of standard references that provide guidance across government procurement activities. Public entities at all levels of government perform many of the same procurement activities, yet their methodologies and outcomes differ as each entity’s practices have been defined based on their unique operating environments.
“The release of these four practices reflects NIGP’s ongoing commitment to develop, support and promote the public procurement profession in all parts of the world,” said NIGP Chief Executive Officer Rick Grimm. “Times of economic uncertainty are often when procurement’s light shine brightest, and growing the core practices allows that bright light to shine more uniformly across all governments that subscribe to the value of professional practice in public procurement.”
David Noble, CIPS’ chief executive officer, said, “Growing the base of reference-able standards gives public procurement professionals across the globe the necessary guide to achieve high performance procurement organizations that can more effectively support their communities. Considering [that] U.S. governments spend a combined $7 trillion, Canada governments $360 billion, and U.K. governments over 500 billion pounds, consistent and professional procurement practices across governments has a significant impact on how effectively and efficiently governments conduct business.”
NIGP and CIPS will continue to jointly develop and release additional practice references over the coming 18 months and beyond, with plans in place for the release of four more practices each quarter to achieve the initial goal of the development of 30 practices by the end of June 2013.
The Practices for Public Procurement are founded upon the Values of Public Procurement necessary to preserve the public trust, protect the public interest, and ensure fairness for the public good. Those values are accountability, ethics, impartiality, professionalism, service and transparency.
Go to this link on the NIGP website where each of the available practices can be downloaded as PDFs. Each of the practices is listed individually in the left-hand menu under “Public Procurement Principles and Practices”— about half way down the menu.
The NIGP Forum & Products Exposition in downtown Seattle from Aug. 18-22, will have nine sessions covering the practices. “This year, instead of doing a presentation to review the practices, there are workshops being presented in such a manner as to show the practices in action,” said Brent Maas, NIGP marketing director.
For a description of each of the workshops on the practices, go to this link for the PDF. For more information from Govpro on the practices, go here.
