Scottish Government

This indicator is intended to measure the level of procurement officers with an appropriate qualification other than MCIPS which ensures competency in procuring a specific commodity. An appropriate qualification may include MSc Procurement, Construction Qualification which requires procurement expertise, National Standard for Commissioning, Procurement & Contracting. Procurement best practice requires that procurement officers with strategic decision making responsibilities should be professionally qualified.

This BPI is recorded within the profile update in the Hub. When you log into the profile data input page you will be asked the following question:

• How many of the procurement officers ( FTEs) in the organisation hold an appropriate procurement qualification for their current duties?

The hub will then automatically calculate your BPI result using the following calculation:

Number of procurement officers with appropriate qualification ÷ Total number of FTE procurement officers (see Financial Index 3b) x 100

'Procurement Officers' - refers to staff who spend a significant proportion, i.e. more than 50% of their time, specifically on procurement related work. This could include any staff member involved in either strategic or operational procurement activities, such as contracting for goods services or works from 3rd party suppliers, full time procurement support services or the development of procurement policy, strategy or practices. The staff involved may not necessarily sit within the corporate procurement function, and may be involved in areas not traditionally thought of as procurement, eg. involved in capital projects, care commissioning, etc. (This specifically excludes admin, accounts payable, routine requisitioning and other staff in purely transactional activities using previously established contracts and agreements with suppliers, or support and administrative staff who spend time on procurement related support work.)

Annual

Local organisation

Local organisation

Auditable

Increasing/upward

It is imperative that organisations have senior procurement decision makers with formal training and qualifications. Organisations should promote this field of study to procurement staff with a view to promoting procurement as a long-term career option.