Dublin Bus: Assisting you on a journey to procurement compliance

Effective public procurement compliance is fundamental to a public body’s success. Following several high-profile cases where non-compliance has been highlighted, it is imperative that public and semi-state bodies become engaged with compliance in public procurement.

As institutions supported by taxpayer funding, we have a responsibility to ensure our procurement processes meet accepted standards. The Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies, often referred to as ‘the Code’, was established to ensure the highest standards of corporate governance are upheld. The Code obligates state bodies to mandatory reporting including disclosure of procurement compliance levels in their annual reports.

An established procurement compliance process ensures transparency and accountability. It instils trust in stakeholders through fair sourcing and purchasing, ethical supply, inventory management, and efficient cost control. Commitment to these standards will reinforce a company’s standing as a responsible and dependable leader in the industry.

Dublin Bus recognises the importance of public procurement compliance. Our procurement department is at the epicentre of our organisation, driving forward operational excellence to the highest standards.

We are on a consistent journey towards improved compliance, developing systems internally, mainly due to a lack of available external expertise. Now, as an award-winning procurement department distinguished not only by the recognition of our peers but also our reputation as a leader in the industry, we have created a transformative workshop, that will enable us to leverage our expertise to assist others.

The workshop was developed by our procurement department in response to a lack of compliance expertise in the market. The reality is that many state bodies, of which there are almost 900, struggle to manage all the regulations, with compliance rates less than would be desired across the sector.

These Dublin Bus workshops will assist other state bodies to achieve improved compliance. The workshops aim to offer a platform for shared experiences, to identify key business requirements within public procurement, and to enable participants to understand where they are in relation to their compliance obligations. Only when this is understood, can a path to ‘full compliance’ be constructed.

During the workshops participants will learn how to achieve high-ranking compliance levels through:

• understanding the Code of Practice;
• using standard operating procedures;
• compliance reporting;
• review of their tender database (if any) and its functionality;
• early warning systems;
• guest speaker on sustainable procurement; and
• group work.

Ultimately, Dublin Bus will help attendees to create a culture of compliance.

For more information regarding the workshops, go to procurementcompliance.ie