Performance measurement of the procurement function

In reviewing the state of procurement services and practices in the United Nations system, the Inspector finds that the procurement function has evolved over the past ten years from a relatively obscure administrative activity to a financially high profile and high risk function.

A number of advantages could be derived from such a streamlined reorganization of the procurement function at Headquarters.

Procurement constitutes a strategic function of the United Nations and its funds and programmes, which in 2002, together accounted for 85 per cent of total procurement expenditure of the organizations.

Table 2 suggests that the organization of the procurement function within the United Nations system is far from optimal.

Viewed in terms of cost effectiveness, if not of common sense, the need to outsource the procurement function to a sister agency, especially under common services arrangements discussed further on in the report, would seem crucial where procurement is a tactical rather than a strategic function.

E procurement, discussed in chapter V, is seen by virtually all the organizations as offering potential benefits for the modernization of the procurement function and bringing it to world class standards.

There was widespread support for efforts that could be made to assist in measuring performance within an organization's procurement function as well as determining costs of procurement, thereby increasing efficiency and effectiveness.

Expenditure of Procurement will be complied and carried out per each item's function of battlefields, regardless of the nature of the military services.

In addition, the Board of Auditors and the Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS), which identified the procurement function as a high risk area, periodically review the reform process and audit procurement practices of the funds and programmes.

Public procurement for projects financed by the multilateral financial institutions will remain outside the scope of the present report, nonetheless the above figures highlight the importance of the subject and of the procurement function within the United Nations system.

Thus the general assessment of the merits of e procurement left no doubt that it was considered as the indispensable way forward in modernizing the procurement function within the United Nations system and bringing it to world class standards.

Staffing of the procurement function in the network of the organizations' country offices (over 130 of them for UNDP, UNHCR and UNICEF, for example) seems particularly blurred.

1.182 To establish a quality assurance function aimed at enhancing customer satisfaction through effective communication, reliability, timeliness and cost effectiveness of the operational and support services in ICT, procurement and engineering.

In the concluding chapter, the Inspector discusses the ways and means by which the organizations could use the procurement function as a development tool in the recipient countries, using a two track approach.

The Inspector concurs with the above points of view, but observes that the method used to compare procurement staff productivity and cost addresses more specifically the important issue of the overhead structure and cost, which is essentially the staffing and cost of the procurement function within the United Nations system in 2002.

Function

Function

Procurement

Procurement

Procurement

Procurement

Regarding function, the mechanism may serve a funding or coordinating function.

Wish function

User function

Monitoring function

Procurement management

Procurement Unit

Procurement planning

Procurement reform

Procurement report

Procurement opportunities

A boyar could have a state function and or a court function.

A functional depends on a function, somewhat analogous to the way a function can depend on a numerical variable, and thus a functional has been described as a function of a function.

Thirdly, it should considerably facilitate procurement reform and the pooling of procurement services.

Internal audit function

Early warning function

Mandate and function

The Procurement Goldmine

Public sector procurement

Overview of procurement

C. Procurement workshops

E. Procurement guidelines

Procurement and contracting

Procurement training initiative