Back on my paws

A slight bout of fever and an acute case of man-flu left the Basement Cat holed up in bed for most of last week. While still feeling rubbish, boredom prevailed and has dragged me in to the office where I can infect everyone else and share the love. Or spread the misery.

An article in the current (19 February) issue of Supply Management investigates a trend of procurement professionals and buyers moving from the private to the public sector; bucking the trend of job cuts, recruitment in public sector procurement is strong. While in part the purpose of the article seems to be to point out that aside from some legislative and procedural hurdles, the pressure and expectations are not all that different, it is endemic of a larger problem in the UK.

It’s no secret that the UK public sector, and the NHS in particular, is rife with non-jobs and ‘management’ roles that serve little purpose other than to consume resources and prop up job figures; mere sink-holes for the taxpayer’s money. Then there’s that delightful little paradox (and administrative expense) of taxing people whose income comes from the taxes they – and everyone else – are paying.

In fact, Procurement/Supply Chain is an aberration, the exception that proves the rule. As a function its primary purpose is to drive down costs, improve efficiency and thereby save time and money for the organisation in question. It is the one arena in which job cuts only make sense if the organisation has contracted to a point that they are superfluous to requirements. For that to happen in the public sector, a brave government is going to have to make some significant cuts.