Public Procurement and Supply Management Strategies

Abstract

This article develops several frameworks for the analysis of supply strategies employed for public sector contracts on the basis of a review of the literature on public procurement and supply management. Three approaches to public procurement are identified. Current UK government policy and European Union Directives emphasise the commercial and regulatory strands. However, there is a need to recognise the importance of the socio-economic strand of public procurement. A range of supply management strategies are then explored, which are distinguished by four criteria: map of the actors; information sharing; features of the relationship; and sharing of risks and rewards. The final section of the paper analyses a sample of contracts from Government Purchasing Agency (Northern Ireland) (GPA) and the then Department of Environment, Transport and the Regions (DETR). Whilst the more commercially or regulatory oriented contracts are found to employ relatively simple, dyadic strategies involving open competitive tendering, more complex supply chain management or network strategies are found in relation to contracts where socio-economic goals are of primary importance.