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COVID-19: PPN 03/20 published on use of procurement cards (Cabinet Office)
Practical Law UK Legal Update w-025-1043 (Approx. 2 pages)
COVID-19: PPN 03/20 published on use of procurement cards (Cabinet Office)
| Published on 22 Apr 2020 • England |
The Cabinet Office has published Procurement Policy Note 03/20: Use of procurement cards (COVID-19), setting out guidance on the use of procurement cards to support cash flow for suppliers.
On 6 April 2020, the Cabinet office published Procurement Policy Note 03/20: Use of procurement cards - COVID-19 (PPN 03/20) which contains guidance on the use of procurement cards to support cash flow for suppliers. PPN 03/20 states that the COVID-19 outbreak has placed increased pressure on commercial and finance teams and increased importance on maintaining cashflow to suppliers. Further, that increasing use of procurement cards can improve organisations' efficiency and accelerate payment to their suppliers while still ensuring robust controls.
PPN 03/20 contains information and guidance for central government departments, their executive agencies and non-departmental public bodies (in-scope organisations) on the use of procurement cards in order to accelerate payments to suppliers to support and improve their cash flow.
The in-scope organisations are urgently required to engage with their procurement card provider and:
- Increase the single transaction limit to £20,000 and the monthly limit on spending with procurement cards to £100,000 for key card holders.
- By 30 April 2020, ensure that an appropriate number of staff have the authority to use these cards and to open all relevant spending categories to enable wider use of these cards.
- Ensure appropriate limits are set for key card holders which comply with PPN 03/20.