30 July 2010 | Angeline Albert

The public sector in Scotland needs to improve procurement practice to help the government reduce its deficit, according to a panel of business experts.

A report written by the panel for the Scottish government said efficiencies from shared service centres had so far been disappointing and that more outsourcing of services and improvement of procurement practice were necessary to meet the funding gap. However, efficiency savings across government would not in themselves create the reduction in spending Scotland requires.

“The sharing of services provides a major opportunity for reducing costs. Shared services can cover a wide range of approaches, including improving internal processes, standardising practice and technology, sharing technology and sharing service provision. However, to date, the number of shared service projects which have delivered significant efficiencies and benefits has been disappointing.”

The panel heard from stakeholders that there is scope to build on good practice and to make better use of the guidance and tools that have been developed by the government, such as best practice indicators, its contracts portal, its procurement capability assessment, and the eProcurement Scotland infrastructure.

The report said the Scottish government should “build on progress to date to improve procurement performance and make better use of collaborative contracts without an adverse impact on individual users of public services”.

Scotland has 32 local authorities, 23 NHS bodies, eight police forces, 20 universities, 43 colleges and more than 100 other public bodies.

The report’s publication follows the British government’s decision to reduce funding to Scotland.