To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the progress of building a team of service procurement specialists and the proposed upskilling of public service managers in this area; and if he will make a statement on the matter – Seán Kyne TD.
Reply – Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin:
Table 1 below sets out the overall progess in establishing the Office of Government Procurement. As at early December, 139 (60%) of the planned OGP headcount of 231 is on board; a further 58 (25%) has been selected and most should take up their positions early Q1 2015. 34 positions remain to be filled. 21 of these positions will be filled through the newly established Clerical Officer Panel which the Public Appointments Service is establishing.
Table 2 provides further detail with regard to the recruitment of the 158 sourcing roles. The sourcing senior management team is now complete with the Head of Spot Buying joining the five portfolio managers in October.
| Table 1 | OGP Recruitment Status as at 08th Dec 2014 | |||
| Positions | On-Board | Selected | Vacancies | |
| Sourcing | 158 | 93 | 55 | 10 |
| Operations | 22 | 16 | 2 | 4 |
| Customer Service | 19 | 12 | 0 | 7 |
| Policy | 13 | 10 | 1 | 2 |
| Programme Mgmt | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Corporate Affairs | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Office of CPO | 14 | 4 | 0 | 10 |
| Total | 231 | 139 | 58 | 34 |
| Table 2 | Sourcing Recruitment as at 08th Dec 2014 | |||
| Positions | On-Board | Selected | Vacancies | |
| Director of Sourcing | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Portfolio Managers | 5 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| Head of Spot Buying | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Category Managers | 30 | 20 | 7 | 3 |
| Category Specialist (1) | 70 | 34 | 36 | 0 |
| Category Specialist (2) | 40 | 28 | 12 | 0 |
| Sourcing Support | 11 | 4 | 0 | 7 |
| 158 | 93 | 55 | 10 |
To ensure a consistent approach to operations and an over-arching cohesive culture in an organisation consisting of people from diverse entities and backgrounds, the OGP has developed a learning and development strategy based upon a set of technical and behavioural competencies as well as a matrix of appropriate training interventions to address any gaps in these competencies.
Initial training has commenced and is aimed at equipping staff with the necessary skills and knowledge to work to a common standard in the following three core areas by early 2015.
- Core Procurement & Category Management Training
- Public Sector Procurement
- Customer Service