Flash polls

The PCDC flash poll on the role of procurement will end on 15 September 2011.

PCDC invites you to take the poll here.

Results from the first flash poll

The first poll in the flash poll series launched by PCDC looked at the role of procurement: Is it a strategic or a technical function?

The results indicate a perception that procurement will move towards an increasingly strategic role.

Click here to see the results.

Your comments are welcome!

Wow, I am surprised at the results to the first poll. If you take the categories of Clerical and Regulatory, add in Technical, you have around 65 % of the respondents stating that this is the current view of procurement in government.

Now looking to the future, we can see that many of the respondents stated that they were either going to be Strategic or Advisory (over 68%). This is a rather large change in five years.

I guess the question that I have is how are we going to get to that level of involvement within our respective governments?

PCDC has launched the [u">second flash poll[/u"> in follow-up to the first poll that clearly indicated a significant shift towards a much more strategic role for procurement within few years (see results on [u">this link[/u">).

This second flash poll looks at the role of knowledge in enabling procurement taking on a more strategic role.

You can participate in the flash poll [u">here[/u">.

The poll will be open until 17 November 2011 and results will be published on the PCDC website and in this forum.

The second flash pole on the role of knowledge enabling procurement to take on a more strategic role will close on 9 November 2011, a little earlier than anticipated.

If you would like to participate you can take the poll here.

The results from the second flash poll are out. See them here.

The findings suggest that practitioner-oriented material and guidance along with networks play a significant role for transitioning public procurement into a core strategic area of policy making.

You are welcome to comment on the findings in this forum.

English:

The results of the latest flash poll, clearly states that the use of guides and manuals, as well as online searches for knowledge resources are the most common sources of knowledge used relating to work on procurement. This raises 2 issues; that of the lack of guides and manuals within procurement units; and that of the quality of such guides and manuals found online. The results of the latest flash poll confirm the importance of these tools being available on a click.

The top 3 of knowledge resources; Assessments, case studies, best practice with guidelines, methodologies & toolkits. These are identified as the most needed type of knowledge resource to move procurement into a more strategic space. The application of such knowledge resources is made available and access thereto reinforced via online searches.

Finally, the top 2 on knowledge content; guidance on how to integrate procurement in broader public sector management and capacity assessments and planning are considered the most needed in order to make procurement a more strategic function, beyond a purely clerical and administrative function. Implementation of strategies of this caliber necessitates high level leadership and training and capacity development at all levels of government.

Francais

Les résultats du dernier sondage flash, stipule clairement que l'utilisation de guides et manuels, ainsi que des recherches en ligne pour les ressources de connaissances sont les sources les plus courantes de connaissances utilisées relatives passation des marchés. Cela soulève deux questions; celle de la lacune de guides et de manuels dans les unités d'approvisionnement, ainsi que la qualité de ces guides et manuels disponibles en ligne.

Le top 3 des ressources de connaissances sont; évaluations, études de cas, meilleures pratiques avec les directives, méthodes et outils. Ceux-ci sont identifiés comme étant les types de ressources de connaissances dont il y a le plus besoin, pour permettre la fonction de passation des marchés de prendre plus d’ampleur au niveau stratégique. L'application et l’accès de ces ressources de connaissances est devenue disponible en ligne. Les résultats du sondage flash, nous confirme l’importance de mettre a la disposition ces outils.

Finalement, le top 2 concernant le contenu des connaissances; conseils sur la façon d'intégrer la gestion d'approvisionnement dans le secteur public et les évaluations des capacités et la planification sont considérés comme les plus nécessaires, afin de rendre la fonction de passation des marchés plus stratégique, au-delà d'une fonction purement administratives. La mise en œuvre de stratégies de ce calibre nécessite un leadership de haut niveau, ainsi que la formation et le développement des capacités à tous les niveaux de gouvernement.

Priority Knowledge resources and content for a more strategic role for procurement

The priority types of knowledge resources needed to enable public procurement to transform into a more strategic role were identified as ; 1) Assessments and case studies; 2) best practice and best fit examples, by procurement practitioners in the poll (see results below).



This need is comprehensively addressed by the OECD DAC Task Force for Procurement current publication Strengthening Country Procurement Systems: Results and Opportunities which presents the case material and country evidence from procurement system reform and from applying the OECD/DAC Methodology for Assessment of Procurement Systems (MAPS).

Guides, methodologies and toolkits were also identified as an important resource which is addressed by the Task Force on Procurement sister publication, A Practical Guide to Transforming Procurement Systems which provides detailed step-by-step guidance on the process of developing procurement capacities. The process includes a series of stages, including stakeholder engagement, diagnostics, planning, implementation and evaluation, and the practical guide includes tools and templates to address each stage.

The procurement practitioners identified capacity assessment and planning as important knowledge content, which is central to the practical guide (see results below)



The integration of procurement with other public sector management was seen as the most important knowledge content to move procurement towards a more strategic role. This is addressed in the Task Force publications but it would be interesting to hear of other resources and experiences.