Overview of Public Procurement

Procurement is an essential function for all governments and serves to provide service that connects public sector operations with private sector suppliers, contractors, and providers. High performing procurement functions not only support government’s responsibility to use resources effectively, they also promote efficient operations, reduce business continuity risk, and work to maintain trust in government. Unfortunately not all organizations utilize procurement to its full strategic potential. In this course, instructors will cover the basics of public procurement, provide an overview of key processes and policies, highlight important features and tools of modern procurement functions, and explain how the profession is evolving to better meet the needs of governments.

• Understand the basic principles of public procurement
• Identify strategies to better integrate procurement and finance
• Explore procurement ethics and how to apply commonly held values to everyday situations
• Review components of a procurement policy
• Learn best practices for common procurement processes
• Identify how to apply a more strategic role for procurement
• Understand technologies available to assist public procurement processes