“We are currently carrying out a review to improve public procurement in Northern Ireland. A Review Team - drawn from public sector procurement professional staff plus important external interests, including representatives from industry, universities and the equality sector – has been tasked with taking the issue forward and is due to complete its initial assignment by June 2001.

Given the scale of procurement within the NI public sector, this area obviously offers significant potential for refocusing public expenditure towards the Executive’s priorities as set out in ‘Programme for Government’ - small percentage improvements in efficiency and effectiveness will yield fairly large gains in absolute terms. The review involves a fundamental scrutiny of the whole procurement philosophy, including links to equality obligations and other, wide-ranging social and economic issues.”