Agenda item

The Head of Procurement attended the meeting and provided Members with a brief presentation on the procurement process within the Council.

Members were reminded at their meeting in June consideration was given to a briefing paper which provided an overview of the procurement process within the Council.

The following issues were covered in the presentation:

·        In its simplest terms, Procurement was the acquisition of goods and services

·        Within the context of the Council, Procurement service was about ensuring robust control of external expenditure, understanding the business requirements, tendering and letting contracts in a compliant manner and enabling the management of supplier relationships in an effective and productive way

·        The Council’s Procurement Cycle worked as follows:- Understanding the Council’s requirements, assessing how the goods / service could be provided, agreeing the process of acquiring the goods / service, carry out competitive tender exercise, letting the contract in accordance with the Council’s Constitution and then managing the contract and supplier performance

·        The authority levels and delegations for contract were set out in the Council’s Constitution in Schedule H, Procurement & Contract Standing Orders

·        Tenders less than £50,000 could be accepted by the appropriate delegated officer

·        Tenders more than £50,000 but less than £250,000 could be accepted by the relevant Cabinet Member

·        Tenders more than £250,000 had to be agreed by the Cabinet

·        Contracts over £100,000 had to be sealed by the Council

·        Contract Management was led within the service areas but support was given by Procurement

·        Procurement had introduced a cross Council Contract Management Framework which set out which suppliers required formal relationship management (strategic, critical & key suppliers) and how the relationship management would be carried out

·        A Contract Register was maintained of contracts entered into by the Council. This ensured transparency around public expenditure. The Register included details of contracts for the full duration of the contract period

·        Contract management was used to inform the delivery plan in each directorate for when contracts were to be tendered

·        The Council’s Forward Plan contained details on forthcoming tenders to ensure there was engagement with Councillors and that decisions were planned properly

·        Procurement was a support function within Central Services which reported to the Chief Finance Officer

·        Business Partners were resources which were co-located within the Directorates that reported centrally to the Head of Procurement

·        The Business Partner model was used to influence, lead and where appropriate, challenge officers to deliver efficiency and service improvement

·        The Business Partner model was the proven method of delivering benefit and ensuring alignment of service objectives with corporate objectives

·        The Procurement service consisted of 14.5 full time equivalent staff which was about the right size for the Authority

·        Certain areas of procurement were highly specialised and Procurement officers worked closely with skilled service officers on these contracts

·        In the present economic climate, Procurement was helping service offices and the Council look at expenditure in a more serious way. The Council had to be more efficient and robust conversations took place regarding pricing

·        There were supplier risk management processes in place to ensure the Council was not at risk in terms of suppliers going out of business

·        In relation to tenders, the Council had two methods of evaluation; lowest price and most economically advantageous (80% price, 20% quality)

·        Reference was made to collaborative procurement which took place at both local and national level with Social Care being a good example

Members thanked the Head of Procurement for the presentation and praised the work of his team. Procurement was a success story of the Council and one of the main reasons why the Council had driven down costs whilst not impacting on services to the residents. Members asked that the Head of Procurement work with Corporate Communications on publicising the work of his team.

RESOLVED -

1. That the information provided in the presentation be noted.