The management of teaching and research equipment in Scottish higher education institutions : report / by the Comptroller and Auditor General.

  • Great Britain. National Audit Office.
Date:
1996
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: The management of teaching and research equipment in Scottish higher education institutions : report / by the Comptroller and Auditor General. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    10/88 (page 4)
    15 16 He's academic departments was there clear evidence of serious consideration of downstream costs (maintenance, consumables, spare parts etc). Without such consideration there is a risk that equipment which costs more throughout the life-cycle will be selected because of its lower initial costs. However, purchases made by computing services departments generally gave full weight to these costs. There were only a few examples of purchases being combined to improve the institution’s negotiating position. The National Audit Office concluded that there is scope for institutions to improve significantly on the standard of purchasing undertaken departmentally, and hence improve value for money, by: e obtaining a better deal through competitive procurement when there is more than one supplier and negotiating in all cases; e taking account of down-stream as well as initial costs in choosing equipment; e seeking to combine orders for common equipment, within and especially between departments; and The rate at which the institutions examined were moving towards a fruitful partnership between the professional purchasing co-ordinator and equipment purchasers in departments was variable. At several institutions co-ordinators have helped secure significant savings, in one case around £57,000 on a single item of equipment. At most their role in relation to equipment was limited to items above the European Union threshold for advertising requirements. The application of professional expertise more generally is important and, if standards are to improve, purchasing co-ordinators need to: provide more advice on the application of professional purchasing techniques to departments; and encourage greater co-ordination of equipment purchasing within institutions. For example, at one institution the purchasing co-ordinator had secured savings of £10,000 (26 per cent) by combining orders from five departments for centrifuges. To have an impact purchasing co-ordinators need good information but progress in developing information systems since the National Audit Office last reported has been very limited. The National Audit Office concluded that institutions need to: e secure greater influence for the purchasing co-ordinator in departmental equipment purchasing; e develop competitively tendered framework agreements against which users can call off commonly procured information technology equipment; e consider establishing a network of departmental purchasers to act as a focal point for the exchange of information and expertise; e work with the Scottish purchasing consortium for higher education to develop arrangements for the supply of equipment which benefit from the Scottish institutions’ combined purchasing power; and