 Procurement practitioners within the government service, recently participated in a capacity building workshop, get at improving competencies, efficiencies and productivity in the procurement of goods, services and resources on behalf of the government of St. Lucia. Director of procurement in the Department of Finance, Anthony Jean, said the training allowed participants to understand and utilize the provisions within the new procurement legislation to perform better procurements to the benefit of their agencies. It's not enough just that officers know what's in the law, but to appreciate the underlying why allows them to use that as a tool to effectively accomplish what the agencies require. It's not just purchasing or performing a procurement in compliance with the law, but you want to be able to do it in a manner that really gets you what you want for your agency. Senior consultant with Charles Kendall Partnership, Rob Thompson, was one of the facilitators of the workshop. I've been in procurement for 30 plus years, working with both private sector and the public sector, but specializing in terms of public procurement and helping developing nations as well as European countries to interpret the regulations in a practical way which will deliver good value for money procurement, but cylindrical compliance, rather than having people focus purely and simply on compliance without thinking about is it good value in the end when they make their procurements. He stressed the important rule procurement officers perform, as procurement touches more of government's expenditure than any other function. If we get the procurement rights, buying hospitals, buying roads, even buying office equipment or furniture, whatever you think government needs, it has to be bought and that's why procurement is fundamentally one of the most important functions within government to deliver a good return for the investment that people make in their taxes that they pay. The international tax consultant employed participants to strive for value for money in the procurement process. Usual approach for people to take because it's a safe approach is to buy the cheapest so the lowest price. What I'm saying to them is it's equally good value to buy one which has a better life cost than it is simply the initial purchase price. So look at things over their life and sometimes it's worth paying more to start off with because over its life it actually has a lower cost. The takeaway for participants, he said, is that performing good procurement leads to good compliance with the standards and legislation. The week-long workshop at the Finance Administrative Building in Point Seraphine also involved participants from the audit department who review public procurement. For the National Competitiveness and Productivity Council, Glenn Simon, reporting.