Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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240. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if he will provide the original business case for the setting up of the Office of Government Procurement. [11441/21]

Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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In May 2012, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform engaged Accenture to undertake a capacity and capability review of the central procurement function and to identify the actions required to realise savings in public procurement in the short and medium term. The final report on this review was published on the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform website in September 2012. It can be accessed at following link:

The recommendations from this report, contained in a memorandum to Government, formed the basis of a business case for the setting up of the Office of Government Procurement (OGP).

Among the measures referenced were:

- The Government agreed to implement arrangements in respect of the centralised purchasing frameworks organised by the National Procurement Service (NPS).

- The appointment of a Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) and the establishment of a National Procurement Office (NPO, which became the OGP).

- The NPO to be established, inter alia, by the transition of the functions of the National Procurement Service in the Office of Public Works and the National Public Procurement Policy Unit in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform.

- The feasibility of transitioning related activities of the Centre for Management and Organisation Development in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to be examined in the course of planning the transfer of functions to the NPO.

- The CPO to develop, for approval for government, by the end of Q1 2013, a detailed implementation plan for the reform of the central procurement function, in line with the strategic recommendations of the Accenture Report.

- The report estimated that implementation of its recommendations, over a three-year period, could yield potential annual savings in the range of €249 million to €637 million on an addressable spend of €7 billion, depending on the approach taken.