In November 2004, the Scottish Government published a report entitled 'Building a Better Scotland, Efficient Government - Securing Efficiency, Effectiveness and Productivity'. Within the report, there was a commitment to conduct a review of public procurement in Scotland in 2005, led by a senior figure from the private sector.
Following publication of that report, it was announced in 2005 that John F McClelland CBE would conduct a detailed review of public sector procurement in Scotland. The Review focused on:
- the structure and organisation of buying organisations in Scotland;
- skills and capability;
- practices and procedures;
- performance indicators and targets; and
- opportunities for improvements and new techniques.
The Review of Public Procurement in Scotland - Report and Recommendations was published on Wednesday 15th March 2006.
The Public Procurement Reform Programme in Scotland began in 2006, following the publication of the review. A far-reaching and ambitious undertaking, the Programme was established to improve procurement across the Scottish Public Sector.
Its Vision was the implementation of structures, capability and processes to provide continuous improvement in procurement across the Scottish Public Sector in order to deliver Value for Money improvements and support increased efficiency.
Audit Scotland's report, Improving Public Sector Purchasing, published in July 2009, recognised the progress that had been made over the first three years of the reform programme. Audit Scotland estimated that, by the end of 2007-08, the reform programme had directly delivered £327 million worth of savings and benefits. The Scottish Government's annual efficiency outturns show that, by 2009-10, that figure has risen to almost £800 million.