what is the difference between procurement and purchasing?

THESE TWO TERMS CAN SOMETIMES BE USED INTERCHANGEABLE! THOUGH HAVE SLIGHT POINT OF DIFFERENCE. PURCHASING IS JUST A PART OF PROCUREMENT AS PROCUREMENT MEANS BUYING,PURCHASING,RENTING,LEASING,OR ACQUIRING GOODS,WORKS & SERVICES.
SO,PURCHASING DOES NOT COVER ISSUES OF RENTING AND LEASING / DISPOSAL RATHER THAN ACQUIRING GOODS BT PROCUREMENT COVER THEM.

Purchasing is that function responsible for acquiring goods and services by legal means to meet the company requirements. This activity involves; the identification of need,investigating and selecting a supplier, preparation and issue of purchase order, follow up of the order, receipt and inspection of material,auditing the invoices and authorisation of payment and closing the order.

Procurement is the total management of purchasing activity to meet long and short term requirements. It involves; setting purchasing objectives in long and short term, setting workable purchasing structure, purchasing system (procedures and documentation), setting purchasing strategies,recruiting and positioning staff people, managing suppliers and making relevant purchasing decisions.

source: Lecture notes on Advance Procurement

Could this help?

Purchasing refers solely to the process of buying goods and services, whereas
procurement is a macro-process involving not only the process of purchasing of services and
goods but also the logistics, storage, reception, inspection and monitoring processes. Source: Browsed Internet

Lawson,

Welcome to the Portal.

You wrote:

Some one tells me procurement are the steps/processes from initiating a need up to acquisition of goods, while purchasing is just the final process of acquiring the goods. I dont agree with that please help.

You do not agree with the above statement- can we hear what are your views on the above? What do you think is correct?

Please can you differentiate those two terms for me? some one tells me procurement are the steps/processes from initiating a need up to acquisition of goods, while purchasing is just the final process of acquiring the goods. I dont agreed with that please help.