Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context

Question 699: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs if his Department has produced an annual corporate procurement plan in respect of each of the years 2000 to 2005; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [2240/06]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context

The adoption of annual corporate public procurement plans by Departments is one of the recommendations of the National Public Procurement Policy Framework document issued by the Department of Finance in May 2005. The development of such a corporate plan by each Department involves the evaluation of existing approaches to procurement, the setting of targets for value for money improvements in the purchase of goods and services and, in conjunction with the National Public Procurement Policy Unit, the development of in-house procurement expertise.

Within Vote 28, Department of Foreign Affairs, the level of procurement undertaken by my Department is relatively small. The Department has, nonetheless, recently established a procurement management unit within its corporate services division. As well as ensuring compliance with best practice requirements and advancing procurement management reform, this unit is taking forward the preparation of the Department's annual corporate procurement plan. In accordance with the time frame prescribed by the National Public Procurement Policy Unit, the first corporate procurement plan for my Department will be adopted later this year.

As regards Vote 29, International Co-operation, an outsourcing specialist was recruited in 2002 to oversee the commissioning of consultancies in our development aid programme. Since then, procedures and systems have been reviewed and strengthened to ensure that maximum value for money is achieved.