Office of Government Commerce

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The Office of Government Commerce (OGC) is an independent office of Her Majesty's Treasury, a department of state in the government of the United Kingdom.

The purpose of the OGC is to support the procurement and acquisition process of public sector organisations in the UK through policy and process guidance and the negotiation of overarching service and provision frameworks. This is intended to improve value for money to the taxpayer, optimising the level of taxpayers equity directed towards the delivery of services.

OGC supports initiatives that encourage better supplier relations, sustainable procurement, the benefits of utilising smaller suppliers and the potential of eProcurement. Representing the UK at the European Union (EU) the organisation assists the public sector application of EU procurement rules within the United Kingdom.

Overarching contracts are accessed by the public sector through the OGC Buying Solutions service.

In November 2005 the OGC's Commercial Activities Recompetition (CAR) project was announced. The described the requirement to significantly restructure certain OGC activities, and is currently ongoing.

[edit] Best practice models

The organisation acts as sponsor for best practice in the Programme and Project Management and the ongoing management of service relationships:

Managing Succesful Programmes (MSP)
PRojects IN Controlled Environments (PRINCE2)
Management of Risk (M_o_R)
Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

OGC does not in itself provide training but owns the models, certification being controlled by the APM Group Ltd and training being conducted by a range of approved providers.

[edit] OGC Gateway™ reviews

Acquisition programmes and procurement projects in the central civil Government are subject to OGC Gateway reviews. The OGC Gateway process examines a programme or project at critical stages in its lifecycle, to provide assurance that it can progress successfully to the next stage. The process is based on well-proven techniques that lead to more effective delivery of benefits, together with more predictable costs and outcomes. It is designed to be applied to delivery programmes and procurement projects, including those that procure services, property and construction, IT-enabled business change and procurements using framework contracts.