The Government is expected to announce the first head of the new
Office of Government Commerce (OGC) next week.
Mike SimonsWhitehall insiders had expected an announcement before Christmas
and are growing increasingly concerned that a chief will not be in
place before the OGC officially begins work on 1 April.
According to the Treasury, however, "an announcement will be
made by the end of the month and we expect the new head to be in
post by the time the OGC is up and running on 1 April".
The OGC will be responsible for defining the Government's
electronic procurement agenda. It will oversee the management of
supplier relations and offer project management skills across
departments.
The OGC will create an "electronic shopping mall", which it
hopes will knock £13bn off the government's annual procurement
budget.
These savings depend, however, on meeting Tony Blair's target of
conducting 90% of routine government purchasing online by 2001.
