The Department of Finance and Personnel (DFP) is a Department of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

The Department of Finance and Personnel was first established under the Ministries of Northern Ireland Act 1921. The main function of the Department was to administer the financial business of the Government of Northern Ireland. The Civil Service (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 places a duty on DFP to continue to be responsible for the general management and control of the Northern Ireland Civil Service.

The Minister responsible for the Department is David Hanson.

The Permanent Secretaries for the Department are John Hunter and Bruce Robinson who are responsible for the administration of the six Directorates and five Agencies of which DFP is composed.

Department for Finance and Personnel

 


Delivering eProcurement to the public sector in Northern Ireland

The Department of Finance & Personnel (Northern Ireland) and its Agencies are responsible for a wide variety of functions many of which are carried out centrally on behalf of the Northern Ireland Civil Service (NICS) as a whole. DFP’s Central Procurement Directorate was established on 1 April 2002 following a review of public procurement in Northern Ireland and followed on from the work carried out by its predecessor, the Government Purchasing Agency. The Directorate sits within the Department of Finance and Personnel and has been developed from two former agencies - Construction Service and Procurement Service. The Directorate works with Northern Ireland public bodies to achieve best value for money in their procurement activities having due regard to the integration of economic, social and environmental policies.

DFP provides eProcurement services to some 60 Government Department & Agencies, and other public sector bodies across the whole of Northern Ireland handling more than £10 million of expenditure per year. This includes very small organisations, such as a single school through to large organisations such as the Department of Agriculture and DHSSPS DFP’s relationship with Belmin commenced in 1990 when the Department helped to lay down the cornerstone of eProcurement in Northern Ireland.

DFP operates a hosted and managed eProcurement service to the 60 GDAs; this includes full catalogue management and systems administration on behalf of some 1,200 users. The service is available to users over the Government Secure Intranet and the public internet. Some 35,000 orders are processed which accounts for 126,000 order lines.

DFP have reported savings of around 60% on process costs for departments using their services. This has reduced a typical procurement transaction cost from £60 down to £20.

Some 4 years ago, working with the CPD, Belmin integrated the Government Procurement Card into the eProcurement process. This has enhanced the security of the GPC transactions. Some 20% of transactions are paid through the integrated GPC process.

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