I was wondering if anyone could help?

I am looking at (and struggling with) a report for a Local Education Authority with an underdeveloped procurement stategy that urgently needs to be moved on (as a result of the Byatt and Gershon reports).

The current situation is as follows: no clear link between vision/key aims and procurement, fragmented non-explicit procurement policies, little recognition of lost opportunities for optimal procurement, bound by financial standing orders and has no formal risk management practices for procurement.

Does anyone have any idea's as to how i can tackle this?
I need to analyse the current position (from above statements), detail the info and activities that must be reviewed to develop a procurement strategy and submit an action plan to facilitate implementation of the strategy.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Hi Louise,
You may have already completed some form of Procurement Health Check for the authority. I did some work for an Education Authority in South Africa and developed a set of procurement manuals along the structure of SA's Supply Chain Management framework for the public sector. There is a strong risk emphasis throughout (http://www.treasury.gov.za/showpfma.htm).
One of their (Education Dept) weakest documents, but the one that had the greatest potential was their Commodity Sourcing Strategy document where they outlined strategies for different education commodities (eg. books, stationary, food/catering, furniture, IT/Systems etc). Their better document focused on the different processes to follow (Demand Planning; Purchasing; Logistics; Reverse Logistics/Disposals; Performance Management and Risk Management). This included a wealth of templates and flow charts. They have a good training plan and set of training guides/manuals to cascade the processes and policies across the different Districts and Schools.
Let me know where you are now and any other specifics I could help with.
Best regards and good luck.
ShaunScott, Joburg