HC Deb 27 April 1993 vol 223 c336W
Sir Fergus Montgomery

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what objectives and targets have been set for the Buying Agency for 1993.

Mr. Baldry

I have asked the new chief executive, Stephen Sage, to review the strategic direction of the Buying Agency over the next few months. As part of this, I have asked him to work to the following objectives arid targets for 1993:

PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES AND TARGETS 1993

  • —to manage the Agency's operations efficiently and to give its customers best value for money;
  • —to implement systems to identify more closely individual customers and their procurement requirements, within the public sector and particularly within central Government;
  • —to develop better systems to monitor suppliers' delivery performance against direct call-off orders;
  • —to continue to develop awareness within the public sector, particularly within central Government, of the benefits and services available from TBA;
  • —through achieving these objectives, to develop and expand TBA's customer base and to monitor its progress in doing so.

In support of these objectives I have set the agency challenging key targets for 1993:

  • —an overall profit after interest in current cost terms of not less than 1.5 per cent. of the total sales value of goods and services procured;
  • —an increase in the total attributable sales volume from £131 million in 1992 to £145 million for 1993;
  • —at least 90 per cent. of orders which TBA handles directly on behalf of customer departments to be delivered by the due date;
  • —to acknowledge all customer complaints within two working days of receipt, indicating a proposed course of action; thereafter, to keep the customer regularly informed of progress (no less frequently than every 10 working days); to resolve 75 per cent. of complaints within one month of receipt and the remainder within three months.