Cabinet Member: Councillor Mandy
Williams-Davies
(A) Submission of the final draft Strategy by
the Cabinet Member for Economy
(attached).
(B) To consider the questions raised at the
Preparatory Meeting (attached).
10.40am
– 11.25am
Minutes:
Submitted –
(a) Final
draft of the Strategy from the Cabinet Member for Economy.
(b) The questions
raised at the Preparatory Meeting on 23 April.
The Cabinet Member set the context and she responded to questions of the
Preparatory Meeting in relation to:-
·
Success of the previous Procurement Strategy in terms of achieving all
its objectives.
·
General ambition of the Council for procurement.
·
Striking a balance between ensuring value for money by procuring and
keeping the benefit local.
·
Outcomes of engagement with stakeholders on a local level.
·
Resources to realise the new Strategy.
·
Suitability of the measures for the draft Strategy.
·
Ensure commitment and understanding across the Council to realise the
new procurement arrangements and the objectives of the Strategy.
·
The contribution of procurement towards finding financial savings for the
Council.
·
Category management as a method of offering the best
opportunity to ensure robust control of the Council’s procurement arrangements
and value for money / financial savings.
·
Activation of e-procurement across the Council.
·
Methods that are in place to measure compliance with the requirements of
the Council’s Language Plan.
Members were given an opportunity to ask
further questions and offer their observations. During the discussion, the Cabinet Member, the
Senior Manager – Democracy and Delivery and the Corporate Procurement Manager
responded to questions / observations relating to:-
·
The amount of £185 million spent by the Council during
2013/14, on goods, work and services provided by external organisations. It was noted that the statement in the
foreword of the Strategy was misleading and that it should be made clear that
this amount included funding that came into the Council, as well as the funding
of the Council itself.
·
The Council’s good performance against the local
expenditure target of 45% and it was suggested that this figure should be used
in the report next time.
·
The need to put pressure on the Assembly to ensure a
fair field to all councils in terms of measuring performance and providing statistics.
·
Methods of addressing examples where a company
headquarters is outside the area but the work itself would be contracted
locally.
·
The suggestion that it would put pressures on the
company rather than the Procurement Unit, to state how many local workers were
employed on contracts etc. was a very useful addition.
·
Responding to complaints and how category management
would create more expertise within specific fields and assist learning across
all fields.
·
The role of procurement in the new approach by means
of category management as an enabler for services to reach their efficiency
target.
·
Request for certainty that the Council has provided
enough opportunities for local companies.
·
Influence of the Council on the private sector.
·
Avoiding unnecessary bureaucracy.
·
Importance of changing culture and the need for
departmental training on a joint basis.
·
Importance of ensuring that some e-procurement
processes do not hinder good procurement.
·
Importance of engagement with local stakeholders and
increasing local skills.
·
The need to push the boundary as far as is reasonably
possible in terms of the Welsh language.
·
Importance of providing guidance in the procurement
field for town and community councils as they could take over some Council
services.
The Cabinet Member and officers were thanked for the discussion and it
was noted that they would possibly be invited to return before this committee
in due course to report on the progress of the new Procurement Strategy.
Supporting documents: