An exploration of management competencies in public sector procurement
| Date | 01 March 2012 |
| Published date | 01 March 2012 |
| Pages | 333-355 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JOPP-12-03-2012-B002 |
| Author | David McKevitt,Paul Davis,Roelf Woldring,Kay Smith,Anthony Flynn,Emma McEvoy |
| Subject Matter | Public policy & environmental management,Politics,Public adminstration & management,Government,Economics,Public Finance/economics,Texation/public revenue |
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC PROCUREMENT, VOLUME 12, ISSUE 3, 333-355 FALL 2012
AN EXPLORATION OF MANAGEMENT COMPETENCIES IN PUBLIC
SECTOR PROCUREMENT
David McKevitt, Paul Davis, Roelf Woldring, Kay Smith, Anthony Flynn
and Emma McEvoy*
ABSTRACT. There is currently much debate about the meaning of
competency and its importance to professionalization. This article explores
the personal meaning and importance of competency from the perspective
of public buyers and managers in Ireland and the UK. Using an in-depth
mixed method research design, we propose a typology of public procurement
competency and discuss the implications of the framework for
professionalization of public procurement.
INTRODUCTION
The aim of this paper is to further build upon the distinction
between positive (“what is”) and normative (“what should be”) public
procurement practice, and the conditions that support and impede
individuals transitioning between these practices. The research draws
upon the theory of professions in order to advance a typology of
public procurement competency. The key argument of the paper is
that extant research over-emphasizes acquiring specialized
“knowledge” rather than shaping individual “identity.” An agenda for
further research is for this tension to be reconciled in order for
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* David McKevitt, Ph.D., is a Procurement Research Fellow at Dublin City
University (DCU). His research interests are in public procurement and
innovation management. Paul Davis, Ph.D., is Program Director of the MSc
in Strategic Procurement at DCU. His research interest is in procurement
policy and innovation. Roelf Woldring, is Executive Lead, WCI, Canada. Kay
Smith is a specialist in procurement skills at ICPS. A Ph.D. candidate at DCU,
Anthony Flynn’s research interest is in the relationship between
procurement policy and practice. A legal research specialist at DCU, Emma
McEvoy’s research interest is in public procurement law and practice.
Copyright © 2012 by PrAcademics Press
334 MCKEVITT, DAVIS, WOLDRING, SMITH, FLYNN & MCEVOY
procurement to become a profession with a moral basis at the
societal level.
PROCUREMENT POLICY IRELAND1
The structure and organization of public procurement in Ireland is
decentralized with different legislative provisions in place for central
government and local authorities. The main objective of the Policy
Framework of 2005 was to promote a strategic and professional
approach to public procurement (DoFa, 2005). This envisioned
building the necessary procurement capacity and expertise within
public organizations. The framework made provision that where
practical and legally possible public procurement policy should
promote government objectives. In this context procurement policy
has attempted to facilitate Small Medium Enterprises (SME) and
demand-led innovation (DETE, 2009; DoFb, 2010)
The onset of Ireland’s banking crisis in 2008 necessitated no less
than seven fiscal adjustments up to the first quarter of 2012. This
has meant centralized procurement practice is increasingly driven by
efficiency, a contention reinforced by the establishment of the
National Procurement Service (NPS) in 2009 and reiterated in the
financial budget of 2012. In sum, the goal of Ireland’s Procurement
Policy is to achieve value for money, and public procurement is
defined in functional terms:
The acquisition, whether under formal contract or not, of
works, supplies and services by public bodies. It ranges from
the purchase of routine supplies or services to formal
tendering and placing contracts for large infrastructural
projects by a wide and diverse range of contracting
authorities (DoFa, 2005: Section A, Part 3).
This corresponds to a positive (“what is”) rather than a normative
(“what should and should not be”) definition of practice (Lloyd &
McCue, 2004). The use of a functional definition may be attributed to
the tendency for Irish policy makers to gold plate EU procurement
legislation.2 This favors rule-based decision making and does not
adhere to using procurement as a policy mechanism, i.e., strategic
procurement practice. Whilst procurement policy may lack ambition,
effectiveness or both, the National Procurement Awards
(www.procurementawards.ie) demonstrate that organizational
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