About 20 per cent of such procurement is performed by field based peacekeeping procurement units.

In the meantime, the Procurement Service will organize a second round of the advanced field procurement training programme to upgrade skills of procurement staff in the field missions.

Procurement foreign military sales (FMS)

Procurement in offices away from Headquarters

(1) Except as otherwise provided by this chapter, a procuring entity engaging in procurement of goods or construction shall do so by means of tendering proceedings.

(xii) Procurement services posting of procurement plans and upcoming procurement opportunities on the Division's website preparation and issuance of tenders presentation of cases to the Headquarters Committee on Contracts, including review of procurement procedures being proposed and conducted by offices away from Headquarters and peacekeeping and other field missions award of purchase orders and contracts and negotiation and execution of contracts for the procurement of goods and services

34. Requisitions should continue to be approved first by the Field Administration and Logistics Division using the electronic method of transmission before being passed to the Field Missions Procurement Section for procurement action.

External validation of the procurement system

(e) IAPWG needs to interact more with other entities in the public and private procurement sector and relevant academic bodies so that it is kept abreast of practice, innovations and trends in the external environment.

Procurement decisions, especially where exceptions to procurement instructions are made, should be better documented.

Procurement Officer (FS, 1 post)

In addition, it is incumbent upon each procurement officer in each case to determine that the prospective awardee is responsible.

The 1997 exercise requires Field Offices to report all procurement anticipated in the course of 1997, including that of implementing partners.

Similarly, internal and external reviews conducted in the past few years on the role of the Inter agency Procurement Services Office (IAPSO), extended neither to other procuring entities of the system, nor to cooperative arrangements at the different duty stations at global and field levels, nor for that matter to the mandate of IAPWG serviced by IAPSO.

16. Annual procurement plans should be obtained from all field offices and procurement planning should be strengthened further to ensure economy and efficiency in procurement planning.

The 1996 purchasing plan exercise resulted in the highest ever number of plans submitted to Headquarters by Field Offices.

7. Requests the Secretary General to ensure that all departments and offices at Headquarters and in the field develop, in cooperation with the Procurement Division, annual procurement plans, which should be made publicly available

7. Requests the Secretary General to ensure that all departments and offices at Headquarters and in the field develop, in cooperation with the Procurement Division, annual procurement plans, which should be made publicly available

Procurement by the Field Administration and Logistics Division of the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, including missions procuring under delegations of authority, amounted to 122 million, or 4 per cent of total United Nations system procurement.

No additional resources are required for the purchase of vehicles.

UNPD United Nations Procurement Division

See IAPSO procurement statistics at www.iapso.org.

(a) Three Procurement Assistants, Field Service (new posts)

Furthermore, the head of the Procurement Division should be able to exercise a leadership role in common services and other inter agency endeavours in procurement.

The Procurement Division, in addition to implementing its own reform processes is now actively and closely involved with the Working Group on Procurement.

Moreover, IAPSO could additionally be enabled to sharpen its expertise in e procurement and make it available at low cost to other members of IAPWG, at least in order to preclude recourse to expensive external consultants.

However, ITU outsourced as much as 58.7 per cent of its 2002 procurement operations to the private sector and ILO did likewise for 8 per cent of its total procurement.

IAPSO Inter Agency Procurement Services Office

(b) Inter Agency Procurement Services Office

Thus, the emphasis was changed to the commodity or service being procured rather than on the location of the office or field mission for which it was being purchased.

In addition, process efficiency should be factored in to the analysis, especially with respect to procurement cycles, such as the time lag between issuance of a purchase authorization and release of a purchase order or between the latter and the actual delivery of goods and services to end users.

Welcomes the training programmes for United Nations procurement staff that the Procurement Service has initiated, including in the field, and requests the Secretary General to support these programmes and to evaluate and monitor their impact

These include better procurement planning by requisitioning units, streamlining the procurement process in the Procurement Division and by the Headquarters Committee on Contracts and making necessary changes to the procurement framework, including regulations, rules and refinements in the Procurement Manual.

The Section is considering new procurement practices to provide more flexibility for small purchases.

UNPD, in addition to procuring for Headquarters entities, also supplies peacekeeping missions around the world.

The Procurement Division was reorganized, procurement staff received training, the delegation of procurement authority has been adjusted and new procurement guidelines were finalized.

JPS Joint Purchase Service

The Inter Agency Procurement Working Group (IAPWG)

81. The Procurement Division is the focal point of the Organization for the acquisition of a broad range of goods and services required by peacekeeping operations and other field missions that cannot be procured locally in the respective mission areas.

IAPSO is outsourcing its training curriculum.

The report also discussed the external validation of the procurement system.

The Procurement Division was reorganized, procurement staff received training, the delegation of procurement authority has been adjusted and new procurement guidelines were finalized.

In addition, generic and topic specific procurement handbooks and manuals are often prepared by central or local authorities, but could also be issued by procuring entities or agencies responsible for maintaining government procurement websites.

With the exception of IAPSO, which has automated all its procurement stages and processes thanks to its UNWebBuy e commerce platform, all the organizations are still more or less at the e procurement start line.

In addition to establishing system contracts and improved procurement planning, the Department will continue to work with Procurement Service to explore ways of further reducing procurement lead times at peacekeeping missions.