Public sector spending on goods and services across Scotland amounts to around £8 billion per year. Procurement guidelines govern the purchasing of these goods and services in areas such as health and education services, IT and telecoms, and local government.
The public procurement reform programme aims to drive up standards in the way the public sector procures goods and services to ensure that tax payers money is spent as wisely as possible.
Places are still available at the 4th Scottish Public Procurement Conference and Procurex will take place on 29 and 30 October 2008 at the S.E.C.C. in Glasgow. The event will be chaired by Brian Taylor, BBC Scotland's Political Editor and will feature keynote addresses from John Swinney MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth and Professor John Seddon from Vanguard. The full programme and details of how to book your place are available online.
There is still time to submit an application for the GO Awards Scotland. The awards have become the most coveted recognition of excellence, innvoation and achievement within this multi-billion pound sector. They represent an excellent opportunity to showcase the very best of Scottish procurement talent and to demonstrate the advances being made in the sector.
Speaking of the Awards, John F McClelland (author of the Review of Public Procurement in Scotland) said "The GO Awards Scotland are the first Awards that showcase the innovation and achievements of those involved in procurement in Scotland, and I strongly encourage all involved to ensure that their achievements have the opportunity to be recognised by submitting an entry."
Full details of how to entry and entry packs are available online. The deadline for entries is 22 September.