05 October 2006 | Rebecca Ellinor

A restructure at Treasury will give procurement more emphasis in its dealings with other government departments.

Permanent secretary Nicholas Macpherson last month announced two new directorates. From this week, Jon Cunliffe heads the international and finance directorate, while John Kingman leads the public services and growth directorate.

Kingman's division brings together Treasury's work on public spending and services, public and private sector productivity, procurement and enterprise.

Procurement was previously part of the finance and industry directorate, so purchasers were not on the team that was the first port of call for departments contacting Treasury.

A Treasury spokesman told SM bringing procurement and productivity into a public sector division would "reinforce the idea that these areas should be factored into decisions with departments".

He added it was "making a bigger deal out of productivity and procurement to those who deal with departments on a daily basis".

For more on changes to public sector purchasing, see the public sector procurement transformation supplement.

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