Paul Quinn Appointed as new Chief Procurement Officer.
The Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin, T.D. and the Minister of State with special responsibility for Public Service Reform and the Office of Public Works, Mr. Brian Hayes, T.D. have today welcomed the appointment of Mr. Paul Quinn as the Chief Procurement Officer for the Public Service. Minister Howlin stated that “I welcome the appointment of Paul Quinn as Chief Procurement Officer to lead a key element of the Government’s Public Service Reform agenda. Public procurement is a very significant portion of overall spending and it is essential that the Public Service is achieving maximum value for money and operational efficiency in this regard. We have ambitious plans to realise considerable cost savings in this area and I look forward to working with Paul in this context”.
Minister of State Hayes said “This is a key step in implementing the reform of the central procurement function, which was announced in September. The Chief Procurement Officer will lead a major efficiency drive on Government’s spend on supplies and services of €9 billion per annum”. The Minister added that “the Chief Procurement Officer will lead a programme of work to integrate procurement policy, strategy and operations in a new National Procurement Office; strengthen spend analytics and data management; have much greater aggregation of purchasing across public bodies to achieve better value for money; examine the specifications set out for goods and services; evaluate demand levels to assess how demand can be reduced; and strengthen vendor and category management.” Paul previously worked in eircom, where he was Director, Group Procurement and Supply Chain Management since 2007. He has also held a number of other senior management positions across the group, including General Manager, Network Engineering. During his time with eircom, Paul led the transformation of the of the procurement function, creating a respected and highly capable strategic function, delivering annual savings of €100 million over five years. Paul holds an MBA from Dublin City University, a Certified Diploma in Accounting and Finance from the ACCA and a BSc in Engineering from Trinity College Dublin.
Notes for Editors: Of the estimated €9 billion spend referred to above, a recently completed external review, recently published Review of the Central Procurement Function, commissioned by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform, found that there is a procurement addressable spend of approximately €7 billion. The review estimated that implementation of its recommendations, over a three-year period, could yield potential annual savings in the range of €249 million to €637 million, depending on the approach taken.